As if RAPID ILL wasn’t already amazing, it just got better….

Before I share its latest development, let’s take a look at what exactly is RAPID ILL.

RAPID Interlibrary Loan is a resource sharing system designed by Colorado State University Libraries and used by libraries across the country. Until Spring of 2013, we used RAPID ILL for sharing journal articles. If there was a full-text journal article that you needed and Warner Library didn’t subscribe to it, we would use RAPID to get that full-text article for you from one of the participating RAPID ILL libraries. Conversely, if there was a full-text journal article that a student from a different university needed and their library didn’t subscribe to it but we had it here at Warner, we would get the article and email it to that student- hence “resource sharing”.

As of Spring 2013, RAPID ILL expanded this resource sharing concept to… wait for it….

BOOK CHAPTERS!

Now you can use RAPID ILL to request articles and book chapters that we don’t have here in the library. I think the best way to use this new feature is with Google Books or Amazon.com. If you’ve ever used either of these sites then you’re well aware of their “preview” feature. Both sites also have a huge selection of titles to search through. If you can browse books and view their table of contents, then you can use RAPID ILL to complete your research by requesting full-text chapters of interest to you.

How to Use RAPID ILL

When you want to use RAPID ILL, visit the library’s homepage (http://www.eastern.edu/library-0) and select “Interlibrary Loan Request” from the left menu or the “Interlibrary Loan Services” icon in the center of the page. On the “Interlibrary Loan Services” screen, scroll to the page’s bottom and click on “Login to RAPID ILL”. This will take you into the RAPID ILL system. Enter you Eastern U. ID number in the “E-Card Number” field. Complete the Patron Information form. Then, select which type of resource you are requesting- Interlibrary Loan – Periodical (for articles) or Book Chapters. Fill in information about the item you are requesting. Follow the remaining screen prompts to submit you’re request. It’s that easy! If you have any questions about RAPID ILL, you can contact the Warner Library Reference Desk: (610) 341-1777 or reference1777 [at] eastern.edu.

Some RAPID ILL System Stats for the month of September (2013):

110,776 Borrowing Requests made
96% of those requests were filled
It took an average of 12.92 hours to fill and complete each request