Interlibrary Loan Recognized as Outstanding Supplier, Named to New OCLC Express Digital Delivery Program

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Interlibrary Loan department has been recognized as an outstanding supplier of resources by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and invited to the organization’s new Express Digital Delivery program.

“UTA Libraries is proud to serve our students, faculty, and staff by providing quick and easy access to resources through our exceptional ILL program,” said Peter Zhang, Associate University Librarian for Discovery and Technology. “We are thankful for this recognition from OCLC and look forward to participating in this new initiative.”

OCLC is a global library cooperative serving more than 15,000 member libraries in 107 countries worldwide with its WorldShare interlibrary loan network. This network allows member libraries to extend their collections as well as provide users access to materials not held in their local facility.

The new Express Digital Delivery program was launched in January 2021 to connect a select group of member libraries that have provided exceptional customer service and offer reliability and breadth of resources.

UTA Libraries’ ILL team was chosen for this exclusive program based on their track record of delivering articles and other digital resources within 18 hours (or less). All 1,100+ libraries in the Express Digital Delivery program are committed to a turnaround time of fewer than 18 hours (with an average turnaround time of 10 hours).

Troy Christenson, Resource Delivery Librarian, says his team is honored by the designation, and looks forward to getting to work.

“We are happy to be recognized by OCLC,” Christenson said. “My team has worked especially hard in the last nine months to maintain quality, swift access for our students and faculty to the resources they need, so this acknowledgement is especially meaningful.”

Christenson anticipates the new OCLC program will allow his team to provide greater customer service—and reduce costs for UTA Libraries so resources can be focused elsewhere.

“My hope is that this will speed up the process of obtaining materials and more specifically, reduce the time and cost of obtaining articles,” Christenson said. “I am very excited to see if the fill rate will increase and turnaround time decrease as a result.”

UTA Libraries users wishing to make requests for interlibrary loan materials can do so through the Libraries website.