Library Services Assistant Guide

For full details on the ILL process see the instructions here

The interlibrary loans inbox is primarily used by students at University of Suffolk wishing to communicate about their interlibrary loan, and then by libraries we are borrowing books from.

The main folders you will use to file emails are the BL folders and the Correspondence folders. 

British Library emails

The British Library are one of the people we receive emails from most regularly, emails from BL fall into two main categories:

1. SEDs - these are the emails with links to download documents, in order to supply them to students (according to the process outlined in the ILL guide). Do not file them in the SEDs folder until you have downloaded the file and uploaded it into WMS correctly (instructions here)
2. Admin Order events- these are emails detailing all our current open requests with BL, indicating what stage the items are at. These are helpful to see when BL ship a book, when they come in, check the statuses against the resource request spreadsheet, and then file the email in the Admin Order events folder.

Correspondence emails

Correspondence emails can come from almost anyone. Most of them will need a response of some kind, and we do not file emails until we've sent a response. 

1. Correspondence from staff- these can be staff who have placed ILL requests and are asking questions, or staff who are emailing to authorise a request from a first year.
2. Correspondence from Libraries- If the email is from a library asking if we are able to lend a book, we are not a lending library, so send a polite email back explaining we do not have the resources to lend items. If the email is from a library asking for clarity regarding an ILL request, or asking about the status of a request, check the Resource request spreadsheet and Tipasa for details, and respond accordingly. 
3. Correspondence from students- This is most commonly students complaining that their request has been rejected, or that we have only been able to get them an abstract (often because the item is only available as an abstract). Double check the status of their request and ensure no mistakes have been made, and then respond politely accordingly. Emails from students may also be renewal requests, if so, place the renewal request for a further 3 weeks, and email the student to indicate you have asked the borrowing library, and we will confirm if the renewal is granted. 

The only other emails to be aware of are JISC emails. By default these should all end up in the 'JISC' folder due to an inbox management rule we have set up, but every so often some get missed. You can tell an email is a jisc email because the email will be sent to LIS-ILL@JISCMAIL.AC.UK