The (Almost) Free ILL System for Medical Information

DOCLINE:

Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing ConferenceSeptember 11, 2003

Do your library users need access to medical information?

For themselves or their families?

For their work or school?

Beyond the scope of your collection?

“Technical” (or not)

Regularly or rarely?

DOCLINE Might Help!

Interlibrary loan system for sharing medical, health, and related information

Like OCLC ILL: Web interface for sending and receiving request

Like OCLC ILL: Information about participating libraries; electronic payment; holdings information

Like OCLC ILL: Patron-generated requests (via Loansome Doc)

Different from OCLC ILL:

Specialized subject focus on medical, health, and related information

No connect or transaction charges

Primarily used to send requests for, and receive copies of journal articles (more than 95% of traffic)

Automatic routing based on lenders’ journal holdings and borrowers’ preferences

DOCLINE Startup

Register with National Library of Medicine’s regional representative (that’s me!)

Receive user ID and password

Enter your library’s profile and serial holdings information

Training via Web tutorial, telephone and email consultation, some classes

DOCLINE Use

Open Web browser (IE 5.x, IE 6.x, Netscape 7 via Windows machine), go to http://docline.gov

Enter user ID and password

Create requests for articles (or books) and system will route them to potential lenders

Receive requests from other libraries routed to you based on your holdings

Requests route on after 1 day if not receipted

DOCLINE Example

PubMed—principal index to biomedical and health journal literature

Available via Web to anyone, for free, at http://pubmed.gov

Scenario: concerned parent reading about injuries to school kids’ backs from heavy backpacks. Finds references from Spine.

Where Will DOCLINE Send It?

Libraries that use DOCLINE:– Hospitals and Academic Medical Centers

– Colleges and Universities with Nursing, Veterinary, and Other Health Programs

– Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

– Consumer Health Libraries and a few Public Libraries

Requests route automatically (based on holdings and preferences)

Serials Holdings Information

Must input holdings for at least 25 serials, prefer medical and health-related

Serials must be listed in LOCATORplus (NLM’s Online Catalog)

Not necessarily medical– General (e.g. Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report)– Business (e.g. Business Week, Forbes,) – Academic non-medical (e.g. Nature, Science, Scientific American)– Others

What’s Different about DOCLINE?

DOCLINE only ILL system used by many libraries that specialize in health and medical information

Rarely need to look up locations (Automated routing based on serials holdings records)

National Library of Medicine prefers to receive requests via DOCLINE

DOCLINE Is Free! (Almost)

No charges for joining, no connect or subscription charges for use

Connectivity and software: Web access and browser (Your library probably already has)

However, some participation requirements:– Input serials holdings information– Read account daily and respond– Keep directory information up-to-date

DOCLINE or OCLC for ILL?

DOCLINE focus: articles not complete works OCLC focus: complete works

Why Bother?

If frequent needs for medical and health information, DOCLINE best for ILL

All U.S. libraries with good medical/health collections use DOCLINE—and give it high priority

DOCLINE libraries can participate in FreeShare!– National reciprocal agreement within DOCLINE– Libraries borrow and lend to each other for no charge – 932 libraries participate so far

Borrow-Only: Another Option

Use of DOCLINE for borrowing but not lending

No requirement to enter serials holdings

An option when needs for medical/health information are less frequent

FreeShare participation not available—Lenders will charge

Access Without DOCLINE

National Library of Medicine accepts ALA forms —but lower priority

Pacific Northwest libraries’ serials holdings:

http://nnlm.gov/pnr/serhold/ftp.select.html

Free medical/health journals on the Web:http://www.freemedicaljournals.com/

Questions?

Contact your local National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s Regional Medical Library office from within the U.S. at

1-800-338-7657