Jerusalem, Israel — October 11, 2021
The two institutions will benefit from use of the automated ILL service whose fast turnaround time saves libraries time and money
Jerusalem, Israel—October 11, 2021. Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that the libraries at two renowned institutions in the United Kingdom—the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge—have adopted the Ex Libris RapidILL™ interlibrary loan service. With this acquisition, the universities have also become members of the global RapidILL community, opening their collections to institutions in the UK and around the world.
As an interlibrary loan system built around a community of reciprocal users, RapidILL has an outstanding request fulfillment rate of 95% and an average delivery time of less than 12 hours. Institutions using RapidILL not only enjoy greater access to other collections but also increase the visibility of their own collections. Improving the efficiency of interlibrary loan services supports the advancement of research and makes teaching more effective, both on campus and remotely.
“Currently, many of our interlibrary loan systems are manual, and lending is decentralized,” said Sharon Dyas-Correia, Head of Collections and Resource Description, Collections Management, the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries. “With RapidILL, many of our transactions will be automated – and the system will also enable us to fully participate in national and international resource sharing activities. It will also save valuable time for our staff, especially since we envision that our ILL activities will possibly increase in the future.”
“Major research libraries like ours have historically been ‘just-in-case’ collectors, and now, driven by the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, we’re moving further into the ‘just-in-time’ paradigm,” said Michael Williams, Head of Collection Development and Management, Cambridge University Library. “Interlibrary loan is a significant part of maintaining access to content. RapidILL was the best peer-to-peer option available to us and will help us get content to the end-user as seamlessly as possible.”
Interlibrary loan is a significant part of maintaining access to content. RapidILL was the best peer-to-peer option available to us and will help us get content to the end-user as seamlessly as possible.”
Ofer Mosseri, ProQuest and Ex Libris Corporate Vice President and EMEA General Manager, said “Ex Libris is thrilled to have University of Oxford and Cambridge University join the RapidILL interlibrary loan and resource sharing community, befitting both Oxford and Cambridge users and library users around the globe. RapidILL services will save staff time and increase the accessibility of resources – both domestic and international – for librarians, faculty and students.”
About the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
The Bodleian Libraries is the library service supporting the University of Oxford. The Bodleian Libraries is the largest academic library service in the UK and one of the largest library services in Europe.
The mission of the Bodleian Libraries is to provide an excellent service to support the learning, teaching and research objectives of the University of Oxford; and to develop and maintain access to Oxford’s unique collections for the benefit of scholarship and society. Libraries in the Bodleian Libraries group include the principal University library – the Bodleian Library – which has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years; as well as 27 other libraries across Oxford including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries.
Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera. The Bodleian Libraries are a key part of Oxford’s cultural community and leads an exciting program of public exhibitions and events to engage communities with our collections.
About Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library (the UL) is one of the world’s oldest university libraries – and home to one of the world’s great collections of cultural treasures and research materials.
Since its first recorded beginnings in 1416, as a small chest of manuscripts for Cambridge scholars, the Library is now home to a physical collection of nearly ten million books, maps, manuscripts, photographs and priceless objects, spanning thousands of years of human thought and discovery – in more than 2,000 languages.
Across 17 floors of books and more than 130 miles of shelving, as well as a purpose-built store in nearby Ely, we curate and care for a globally important collection which illuminates the immortal power of storytelling, and humankind’s unending quest to better understand our place in the universe.
Cambridge University Library preserves and shares the world’s knowledge in physical and digital forms: from a 4,200-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, to 19th and 20th century posters demanding suffrage and equal rights for women. Alongside the archives of Newton, Darwin and Hawking – and some of the world’s earliest fragments of the Quran – is one of the most comprehensive collections of British books anywhere in the world.
As one of the UK and Ireland’s six Legal Deposit Libraries, Cambridge University Library has been entitled to request every publication in both the UK and Ireland since 1710. In addition to its physical collections, the UL allows access to tens of millions of electronic articles, books, journals, scores and other e-resources.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based SaaS solutions that enable institutions and their individual users to create, manage, and share knowledge. In close collaboration with its customers and the broader community, Ex Libris develops innovative solutions that increase library productivity, maximize the impact of research activities, enhance teaching and learning, and drive student mobile engagement. Ex Libris serves over 7,500 customers in 90 countries. For more information, see our website and join us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Media Contact
press@exlibrisgroup.com
