By Rosario Garza
Beginning July 1, OCLC Interlibrary Loan service
users will have a new pricing option: consolidated pricing. The traditional ILL
transaction pricing also will continue to be available.
Consolidated ILL pricing will give libraries a single price that will include 12 existing
product codes: ILL Display Holdings (IDH3581), ILL/UL Display Holdings (IDH3611),
IFM Administrative Fee (IFM4572), ILL Request (ILL4501), ILL Request Review
(ILL4502), ILL Direct Produce (ILL4504), ILL Direct Profiled Produce (ILL4505), ILL
Direct Search and DH (ILL4506), ILL Referral (ILL4511), ILL Search (SBL0431), ILL
Scan Title (SCN0315) and ILL Keyword Search (SER0314).
With the new consolidated ILL pricing, library staff will not have to worry about what
kind of search to perform. Libraries using the consolidated ILL pricing option will be
allowed four searches for every ILL request (OCLC produce) performed. The four-
searches -to- one-produce will not be calculated on a per-transaction basis, but rather will
be calculated in aggregate and averaged, most probably on a yearly basis. This will not
be a problem for most libraries, as the current average for all libraries is 2.6 searches for
every ILL produce. However, searches above the 4:1 ratio will be billed on a per-search
basis. (The price for the searches above the 4:1 ratio is yet to be determined.)
Lending credits will continue to be issued as a separate product code. To encourage
libraries that will benefit from this new option to move to the consolidated pricing model,
OCLC is increasing the lending credit received by lenders that have moved to the
consolidated pricing option.
Although the exact amount of the consolidated ILL pricing is not yet available, library
directors and their staffs need to begin thinking about their pricing options. As the end of
the current fiscal year approaches, librarians using the OCLC ILL service need to decide
which option is best for their libraries. BCR will be mailing each BCR/OCLC ILL user
more information on these options, as well as the form to fill out to switch to the
consolidated pricing. To allow BCR and OCLC the time needed to process the forms,
they must be returned to BCR early in June. The new consolidated pricing will take
effect July 1 for libraries choosing the new option. As always, BCR's staff will work
with libraries to help in the decision-making process.
