IDS Workflow Toolkit

Direct Request

What is it?

Do your patrons value quick turnaround time, but your queue is clogged with routine requests? Direct request can automate borrowing request processing within limits that you set in your OCLC direct request profile.

How does it help?

Even simple, routine borrowing requests take time to manually process. Enabling direct request in ILLiad and creating a direct request profile with OCLC allows you to automate routine processing so you can spend time doing other things.

Direct Request for Loans

In order to use Direct Request in ILLiad, you must create Direct Request Profiles and activate the Direct Request routing rule. Also, verify that you have OpenURL correctly configured.

Step 1. Create your Direct Request profiles

Logon to the ILLiad 8 Client, select the System tab, and click on Resource Sharing Settings.

Click on the Direct Request Profiles tab. Next, click New in the Resource Sharing Settings ribbon; label the profile in the Name text box and provide a description.

Then, choose the criteria for loans that can be Direct Requested. Be sure that the Produce the Request option is set to Yes (otherwise it will not be sent to OCLC automatically).

You can create as many or as few profiles as you need, and they can be broad or specific depending upon their purpose. Whenever a request is unable to be produced through Direct Request, it will appear in your Awaiting Request Processing queue with a system-generated note that explains why it could not be processed.

If you are a library that allows your users to request A/V materials, you can make your life a little easier by creating a Direct Request Profile for Visual Materials and Sound Recordings that automatically checks for holdings in a special A/V custom holdings path.

Step 2. Activating the Direct Request routing rule and key

In order to truly remove staff mediation, you will need to activate the Direct Request routing rule. This will automatically move loan requests in Awaiting Request Processing that have either an ISSN or OCLC number into the Awaiting Direct Request Sending queue. Once there, the requests will be run through Direct Request.

Logon to the Customization Manager. Select System, then select Routing, and click on Routing.

In the table of routing rules, look for the rule with the description “Default Direct Request Routing Rule.” Ensure it is configured as follows:

Next, search for the DirectRequestEnabled setting. Change the key value to Yes and save your changes.

Direct Request for Articles

OCLC has expanded Direct Request to facilitate article fulfillment. By tapping into the WorldCat Knowledge Base, the system can now accurately determine which libraries own an article and have the license to lend it. Getting started with Direct Request for articles requires the following steps:

1. Set up your instance of the WorldCat Knowledge Base: http://www.oclc.org/knowledgebase/default.htm

2. Activate the WorldCat Knowledge Base in the FirstSearch Admin Module (under Resource Sharing Options): http://firstsearch.oclc.org/admin

3. Create a Direct Request profile for article requests. For the option “Prefers E Article Processing:”

   1. No -- you do not prefer electronic articles (in other words, fulfillment by print is ok)

   2. E within Group -- for each group in your path, Direct Request will first select lenders that can supply from their e-journals before selecting print lenders.

   3. E across Groups -- Direct Request will first select e-journal lenders from each group in your path. Once all such lenders in your path are exhausted, it will then select print lenders from each group.

4. Create two Direct Request routing rules for articles: