Content Access via Resource Sharing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Nine Health Science Libraries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/istl2829Keywords:
Interlibrary loan, Health sciences libraries, Document Delivery, Technical servicesAbstract
Abstract
Objective
COVID-19 challenged information exchanged globally, including interlibrary loan (ILL) procedures and processes. This research focused on resource-sharing networks used by Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify changes in ILL and Document Delivery (DD) processes both in lending and borrowing.
Methods
From nine academic and association HSL who had participated in a prior study of DOCLINE usage, researchers requested institutional-level de-identified data on ILL and DD during the early pandemic period March-August 2020 and the comparison period of March-August 2019. We compared the journal article request data with previously reported findings from DOCLINE aggregated data.
Results
Regarding the number of requests from the nine institutions, five saw a decrease, while four saw an increase. The average rate of journal borrowing decreased by 67.1% (standard deviation (SD) 31.7%) per library, and lending decreased on average by 44.7% (SD 68.2%) per library. Document delivery, on average, decreased by only 1.9%, though this varied widely (SD 45.5%). For the data on monographs loaned during the pandemic, there was a predominance of single request titles unfilled across 2019 and 2020 (n = 1631; 93.5%).
Conclusion
The predominance of single request titles unfilled during the pandemic when libraries limited their sharing of physical materials argues for a deeper exploration of controlled digital lending of materials held in print. The findings across this study and its related investigations (Lloyd et al., 2022; Bakker et al., 2023) on the impact of the pandemic on resource sharing can inform and enhance preparedness planning, future resource sharing workflows and messaging, budgeting, evidence-based collection development, and dialog with content copyright holders about digitization priorities.
Downloads
References
Bakker, C. J., Koos, J.A., Hoogland, M.A., Rand, D., Alpi, K.M. (2023). An exploration of journals requested by health sciences libraries through DOCLINE interlibrary loan during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 103. https://doi.org/10.29173/istl2744
Connell, R. S., Wallis, L. C. & Corneaux, D. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the use of academic library resources. Information Technology and Libraries, 40(2), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v40i2.12629
Creazzo J., Bakker C.J., Jo P., Koos J.A., Alpi K.M. (2021). Report from the field: Researching interlibrary loan/document delivery usage by health sciences libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve, 29(3-5), 171-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/1072303X.2021.1936739
Frederick, J., & Wolff-Eisenberg, C. (2020). Academic library strategy and budgeting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ithaka S+R. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.314507
Gillum S. (2024). The Changing Face of Public Services in Health Sciences Libraries Post-Pandemic. Medical reference services quarterly, 43(2), 152–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2024.2330244
Huffman, J. (2020). Free kittens?: Usage of free library e-resources during the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 32(4), 322–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2020.1822005
Jackson, M. E. (2004). Assessing ILL/DD services: New cost-effective alternatives. Association of Research Libraries. https://archive.org/details/assessingillddse00jackrich/mode/2up
Jo, P., Clifton, S., & Malone, T. (2021, May 21-26). Analysis of print journal usage and adaptation of interlibrary loan/document delivery services in response to COVID-19 [Poster abstract]. 2021 Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Virtual. https://jmla.mlanet.org/ojs/jmla/article/view/1438/1989
Juel, S. (n.d.). OCLC Reasons for No. Atlas Systems. https://support.atlas-sys.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011907433-OCLC-Reasons-For-N
Keshmiripour, S., Johnston, P., & Ahmadi, M. (2022). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on interlibrary loan and document delivery requests. Journal of Library Resource Sharing, 31(1-5), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/26915979.2022.2141412
Koos, J. A., Scheinfeld, L., & Larson, C. (2021). Pandemic-Proofing Your Library: Disaster Response and Lessons Learned from COVID-19. Medical reference services quarterly, 40(1), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2021.1873624.
Lloyd, J. K., Alpi, K. M., Hoogland, M. A, Stephenson, P.L., & Meyer, E. (2022). Interlibrary loan and document delivery in North American health sciences libraries during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 110(3), 348-357. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1452
ProQuest. (2020, March 31). Coronavirus research database gives ProQuest users no-cost access to essential coverage of COVID-19 and more. https://about.proquest.com/en/news/2020/Coronavirus-Research-Database-Gives-ProQuest-Users-No-Cost-Access/
Scientific publishing has a language problem. (2023). Nature Human Behavior, 7, 1019-1020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01679-6
Simard, M.-A., Priem, J., & Piwowar, H. A. (2020). How much does an interlibrary loan request cost? A review of the literature. arXiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2009.04281
World Health Organization. (n.d.). WHO COVID-19 dashboard. https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/cases?n=c
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Jenny Pierce, Caitlin Bakker, Phill Jo, Jeannine Creazzo, Holly Thompson, Kristine M. Alpi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While ISTL has always been open access and authors have always retained the copyright of their papers without restrictions, articles in issues prior to no.75 were not licensed with Creative Commons licenses. Since issue no. 75 (Winter 2014), ISTL has licensed its work through Creative Commons licenses. Please refer to the Copyright and Licensing Information page for more information.
