Volume 16, Number 6 • June 1999

Massachusetts Library Enters 90 Millionth OCLC Request

The request was for the book Compulsive Gambling: Theory, Research and Practice. Boston College Library (OCLC symbol: BXM) in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, filled the request the next day.

Pamie Roy, interlibrary loan assistant, and Sue Kaler, interlibrary loan librarian, were entering requests at Wellesley when the record was hit by Roy.

“The request read ‘one,’ and we weren’t sure if the millionth should be a one or a zero,” said Roy.

“Then, I remembered the OCLC Newsletter saying that when the 80 millionth was hit the record read one, and I said ‘Pamie, that may be it,’” said Kaler.

“We weren’t positive until Judith Carter [senior product specialist, OCLC Product Management] called from OCLC,” said Roy.

The OCLC ILL system displays seven digits and resets to 0000001 each 10 millionth record.

The Lehigh Carbon Community College Library in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, entered the 89 millionth OCLC ILL request on February 22.

Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the Metrowest Massachusetts Regional Library System links more than 260 academic, public, school, and special libraries in 36 communities west of Boston. The Metrowest Region provides mediated ILL services through the Wellesley Free Library Interlibrary Loan Center. The service includes assistance in verifying items and transmitting requests for member libraries. The Interlibrary Loan Center also handles incoming requests on OCLC for materials from member libraries. The Wellesley Free Library handles ILL supply and demand for both Metrowest and the Minuteman Library Network (OCLC symbol: MLN).

Throughout 1999, OCLC is celebrating 20 years of the OCLC Interlibrary Loan service. In the 1997/98 fiscal year, over 6,000 libraries arranged more than 8.2 million loans through the system.

Source: OCLC, Dublin, OH, 800/848-5878; http://www.oclc.org.

Table of Contents

Information Today Home Page