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Re: Document delivery et. al. packer donna 06 Jan 1993 19:47 UTC

We have not officially moved our ILL department into Technical Services,
but are integrating Acquisitions/Serials, Circulation, Reserve and ILL
on an informal basis.  My title is "Head of Access Services" and I am
responsible for all those units at our library.  Officially, Acq/Serials
is part of Technical Services, with its own "Head".  However, our first
move when ILL moved from Reference to the Circulation Dept was to integrate
stack searching, patron notification, and similar compatible tasks for
those two units.  Then we began the integration of ILL and Acquisitions
functions.  For example, payment for invoices received for our ILL
borrowing are paid through Acquisitions.  When ILL has a verification
overload, Acquisitions searchers help out.  We now have permission to
simply order and add to the library collection relatively inexpensive
titles (under $25) which we can't borrow because they are "too new" or
simply very popular at libraries which do own them.  More expensive titles
which we can't borrow are referred to our regular book selectors for
a decision on whether to purchase.

This configuration of tasks has worked very well for us.  Our local
library organization may continue to necessitate an official separation
of "Technical Services" and "Access Services" (our other major unit is
"Reference and Instruction Services"), but I am continuing to look for
other tasks which may be integrated in Acquisitions/Serials and
Circulation/Reserve/ILL whenever it appears we may achieve some
efficiency and eliminate duplication of effort.  For now, the integration
will be informal, but it makes a lot of sense to me to continue the process.

                               - Donna Packer
                               - Western Washington Univ. Libraries