How do I place an ILL request for a book?
This article covers the following topics:
- Placing reservations for books in KOHA
- Searching for books at other NHS libraries
- Using the ILL Requests module to create an ILL book request for a title in NHS library holdings
- Using the British Library API to request books from the British Library
- Re-requesting from another source.
- Receiving and checking out ILL books
- Returning, completing, and classifying requests
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Placing reservations for books in KOHA
When looking for books within and beyond Koha, the normal order of priority is to look at your own holdings, then holdings in the region, and then go beyond these only if the book cannot be supplied by yourself or your local network.
You will need the citation for the book you are trying to find. Once you have this:
- Search the Koha catalogue for the book name, searching in the "title" field.
- If the title is available from your location, it can be pulled from the shelf. If it is available from another location in your region you can place a reservation on it by clicking "Place Reservation".
- This will default to placing a title-level request. Set your pickup location and reservation expiry from this screen
- Once you have received the book it can be checked out and returned like any other item.
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If the title is not available from Koha, and you are part of ELMS look for titles from other NHS libraries in the following priority order:
- If you are part of KSS, look for titles from other NHS libraries in the following priority order:
- If you are requesting from an NHS library network listed above, use the instructions in the next section to place your request.
- If you are requesting from the British Library and are not set up with the British Library API, place your request using British library On Demand https://ondemand.bl.uk/onDemand/home then record your request on Koha as outlined in the next section.
Creating a request using the ILL Requests module
If you are placing your request using the British Library API, go to the next section
- From the main page of Koha, click on "ILL Requests", then on "New ILL Request" then "Book / Article Request"
- Choose "Book" as the request type and fill in all the citation details, then at the bottom enter the user's card number and home library (referred to here as the "Destination Library").
- the system will check if there is a matching item in Koha. This is just to make sure that you haven't missed a reservable item. If an item does exist, select it and reserve it as described above. If no such item exists click "continue creating your request".
- You are then taken to the "Manage ILL Request" page. From here you can click on "edit request" to edit the details of the request (which user it's going to, any staff notes about the item), or "edit item metadata" to change details of the item. Once the item and request details are correct, click on "Request from source"
- On the "Request from source" page, you can look through or filter for the library you are requesting from. If you already have the network and library code you can enter these to filter, or you can filter by library name.
- Once you have placed the request, its status will change to "requested from partners" and an email will be sent to the holding library
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If you are requesting from the British Library from their website select BL. Please note this will not request the item, which you need to have done through the British Library On Demand site.
Creating a request using the British Library API
If you are not set up with the British Library API, contact your regional Koha administrator to see if this is available for you. If you do not know if you are set up with the British Library API, you can check by going to https://api.bldss.bl.uk, logging in with your British Library On Demand details, and seeing if the "ELMS Koha Live" API is listed and confirmed. In the meantime place your request with British Library On Demand and record it as detailed above. If you already have access to the British Library API proceed as detailed below:
- From the main page of Koha, click on "ILL Requests", then on "New ILL Request" then "BLDSS"
- Choose "Book" in the "type" dropdown.
- You will now be searching through the British Library's catalogue. This is very easy to overload. The way to get the best results is to search for keywords from your article. So for example if you were looking for: Casement, Patrick. On learning from the patient. Routledge, 2013. you might enter the title term "patient" and the author term "casement".
- Enter the user's card number and home library, then click "search"
- Any books that match the search terms you have entered will display below. If you see either nothing or significantly too many options, click on the button marked "amend your search" to change your search terms.
- If you do see the book you are looking for it will have a British library Identifier listed. Click on this to create a request.
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If you are only requesting a book chapter you will now have the option to specify the chapter. If you do, then you will be able to request this like you would request a journal article. Otherwise you are requesting a book loan.
- You are taken to the "Manage ILL Request" screen. From here you can make any changes needed to the request and also finish placing the request. Please note: do not click "Request from source". As this is a British Library request you will instead click "confirm request".
- When you have clicked "confirm request" you will be taken to a page where you specify the details of your request.
- When you have made your selections click "Check this price". If everything is in order click "Place request". The request will then be sent to the British Library.
Re-requesting from another source
Sometimes the original source will get back to you to let you know that the resource you had requested is unavailable. If this is the case, Koha makes it easy to re-request.
- Find your initial request on the "ILL requests" screen and click "manage request"
- If you initially requested from one NHS library and are re-requesting from another NHS library, click "revert request", then confirm this will change the request status to "cancelled". Once this has been done, click "request from source" again and select the new library from the "Place request with partner libraries" list.
- If you initially requested from an NHS library and are having to request the book from the British Library, please note that the API does not work reliably. Your best option is either to place the request on the British Library on Demand website and then record it here by listing BL as the source, or to delete this request and re-enter this as a request using the British Library API.
- If you initially requested from the British Library and wish to request from somewhere else, click the button marked "switch provider". You might get an error message at this point. if so, go back to the main page and into ILL requests again and the type of request should have changed from "BLDSS" to "Freeform". Click on "Manage request" then "Request from source" and choose your new supplier.
Receiving and Checking out books
Once your partner library has received your request, if your book is available, it will be sent to you. For reservations from within your own network, these can be checked in to your library and then loaned to readers in the manner of books from your own collection. For reservations from outside your network there is a more involved process.
- From the main page of Koha, click on "ILL Requests", then search for keywords from the title or author's name. Then click "Manage Request" on the right.
- On the screen that comes up, double check that the borrower and item details are correct, then click "Check out"
- When the partner library issued the book to you they will have stamped the book with a due date. Enter that due date here and hit submit
- The book is now issued to the user and can be viewed by going to the user record and displaying their current loans. If you search for the request in the ILL Requests module it will now have a status of "checked out".
- When your user is finished with the book and returns it, it can be checked back in by going to the user record, clicking "show loans", locating the issued item, clicking the "return" checkbox, then clicking "Return or renew selected items"
- Once the book is checked back in it will have a status of "returned to library" and can be sent back to your partner library.
Completing and Classifying requests
Once a request has been fulfilled, sent to you, issued to your user, returned to your user and sent back to your partner library, you will need to record that the request has been completed.
- From the main page of Koha, click on "ILL Requests", find the request you placed, and click "manage request".
- If the item has been sent back to the partner library, click "Mark completed". This will change the request's status to "Completed"
- Once the request has been completed, click on "Edit Request". From the drop-down menu here change the status from "Completed" to indicate who supplied the book. So for example if it came from a library in the PANDDA network give the item a status of "Complete, sourced from PANDDA"
Once you have classified the request in this way, you have finished every part of the ILL book request.