While still far below our record high of 1,200 cancelled requests set in 2009/2010, we have experienced an upswing in unfillable borrowing requests recently.  Exactly one third of cancelled requests cannot be processed because of the exhaustion of lending resources.  This reason for cancellation has increased by two and a half times over the past year.  Our databases have grown to index many thousands of items of which there is only one extant copy, but the databases do not disclose the rarity of those particular items to our patrons.  For obvious reasons, the libraries that hold the only known copy of an item are beyond reluctant to lend.  

Who We Borrow From

This report lists the top 20 libraries that have filled requests for Furman University students, faculty, and staff in 2012-2013. Items are counted as filled if they have a current transaction status of Request Finished, Checked Out to Customer, Delivered to Web, or Customer Notified. These institutions provide 42% of the items that Furman borrows. In total, in 2012-2013 we borrowed resources from 317 different libraries.

Who We Lend To

This report lists the libraries who have borrowed materials from Furman University during 2012-2013. Items are counted as filled if they have a current transaction status of Request Finished or Item Shipped. These institutions received 44% of the items that Furman lent.  In total, in 2012-2013 we lent resources to 284 different libraries. 

Beginning in August 2012, Document Delivery was renamed Scan & Deliver, to more accurately reflect the expansion of document delivery services offered by Access Services.  Previously, if a patron requested an article found in one of our microform titles, or a book chapter in our monograph collections, we directed them to microform scanner or the stacks.  In the 2011/2012 year, we began scanning those materials for patrons, and delivering PDFs to their ILLiad accounts.  In the past year, we have seen the popularity of the service increase steadily.

While there were 600 fewer ILL borrowing requests made in 2012/2013 than in the year previous, Scan & Deliver requests increased by 276, meeting nearly half the difference.