OCLC is pleased to announce this home delivery will be available as a beta feature to users of WorldCat Resource Sharing in the U.S. Better World Books will continue to partner with OCLC to provide home delivery of books. Libraries that want to make WorldCat Direct available to their patrons will be charged a fee using IFM.

Upon this beta release, libraries will continue to enjoy these benefits:

• Better World Books as a lending institution will allow libraries to gain access to additional materials to make available to your patrons
• Library materials delivered directly to a patron’s doorstep, while saving staff time and speeding up delivery
• Longer lending periods than normally available through traditional ILL
• Opportunity for patrons to purchase the loaned items

This is how WorldCat Direct will work:

• Log onto WorldCat Services administrative module. Select the WorldCat Direct option from the Staff ILL Settings drop-down menu. You will be asked to accept terms and conditions the first-time you enable the service and following any time during which you turn off the service.
• The OCLC symbol “QUICK,” used by Better World Books during the pilot, will continue and an additional symbol “BWBKS” will be added.
• BWBKS will be used for books that incur a $15 fee. This represents the majority of Better World Books’ collection.
• QUICK will be used for books that incur a $25 fee. Newer books are in this price range.
• There are suggested areas you may wish to make modifications to in your administrative settings.
• Custom Holdings Groups and Paths to ensure that BWBKS and QUICK are each in a Custom Holdings Group of its own at the top of your Custom Holdings Path
• Constant Data to ensure that you have enabled IFM to pay for direct delivery fees
• Direct Request Profiles if you plan to automate the service for your patrons or staff
• When a patron locates an item that is available, he/she can:
• Place a request using the Direct Delivery option on the WorldCat Resource Sharing user form, or
• Place a request with ILL staff who will then place the request using the WorldCat Resource Sharing staff form on their behalf
• The request is then routed for automated processing or sent to library staff for manual review.
• After library staff sends request to Direct Delivery supplier, the borrowing library’s Request Manager indicates whether the item is being sent directly to the patron and, if so, an e-mail notification is sent to the patron.
• When an item is shipped to the borrowing library’s patron, IFM charges are debited from the borrowing library and the request status changes to “Direct Delivered” in the Request Manager.

For detail instructions, please see the WorldCat Resource Sharing User Guide.  If you have any questions about this enhancement, please contact worldcatdirect@oclc.org.

While this enhancement is in its beta version, it will only be available to libraries in the U.S. using WorldCat Resource Sharing as their user interface. During this time, OCLC will be working to enable the same functionality in ILLiad.  Please check back at: http://www.oclc.org/us/en/resourcesharing/default.htm for more information coming soon!