WebZ and E-Mail ILL Requests

Contents

Introduction
Document Conventions
Reasons for Routing ILL Requests to an E-Mail Address
Example E-Mail ILL Request

Introduction

This document describes WebZ's support for sending ILL requests to a specified e-mail address. ILL staff can review requests sent to this address and process them consistent with your policies and procedures. You can configure one or more of your SiteSearch databases to handle ILL requests in this manner. These databases can route ILL requests to an e-mail address while other databases route ILL requests to OCLC ILL Direct Request Service.

WebZ uses Sun's JavaMail 1.1 API to process e-mail messages. See Sun's Web site for more information about JavaMail.

See Configuring WebZ to Send ILL Requests to an E-Mail Address for step-by-step instructions for implementing e-mail ILL requests on your system.

Document Conventions

• <WebZ_root> is the location of your WebZ environment.

Reasons for Routing ILL Requests to an E-Mail Address

Although WebZ can send ILL requests to OCLC's ILL Direct Request Service, there may be situations where it is appropriate for your ILL staff to review requests. What are some of these situations?

Requests from Your Own Catalog

You may wish to review ILL requests for resources from your own catalog. Screening the requests allows you to notify patrons who are not allowed to borrow resources that you own.

Databases Where It Is Not Desirable to Allow ILL Requests

Your library may have holdings that are not apparent to patrons when they search a particular database. For example, a patron may submit an ILL request for a resource he/she finds while searching a government documents database. If your institution is a government documents repository, the patron can probably find the resource locally and doesn't need to request it through ILL. Or you may have the articles referenced in a particular database, such as ERIC, available on microfiche. This is another case where you could point the patron to your own local resources.

Sending Requests to an ILL System Other than OCLC ILL Direct Request

For some databases, you may need to borrow resources from libraries that are not part of OCLC's ILL Service. For these databases, you can route these requests to an e-mail address and process the ILL requests appropriately.

Example E-Mail ILL Request

Here is an example of an e-mail request. This request originated from the ILL form in the WebZ Out-of-the-Box-Interface (OBI), version 1 (<WebZ_root>/htdocs/obiv1/html/illform.html). The discussion that follows describes each numbered item in the e-mail request.

See Also

WebZ and Interlibrary Loan
IllService.ini Configuration File
Configuring WebZ to Send ILL Requests to an E-Mail Address