In the 2018-2019 Academic Year, Interlibrary Loan (ILL) filled just shy of 10,000 requests!
To put this in perspective, this is almost double the number of requests filled just 5 years ago in 2013-2014. And we did it all with less staff!
That said, we thought it would be fun to share with you the year’s most borrowed journals and books, as requested by TAMU-CC students, faculty, and staff, then follow up with a few observations.
Top 11 most borrowed journals through ILL
- Traumatology
- Phytotaxa
- Journal of nursing regulation
- Tie: Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice and policy
- Tie: Canadian journal of fisheries and aquatic sciences
- Tie: Journal of Brand Management
- Tie: Applied optics
- Algological studies
- Tie: Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
- Tie: Psychology of popular media culture
- Tie: Crisis: the journal of crisis intervention and suicide prevention
Observation
- The surprise this year is the appearance of The Journal of Brand Management in the top 10. But considering how many awards our Graphic Design students are winning, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at all.
Top 8 most borrowed books (9th place was an 11-way tie!)
- The rhetorical tradition: readings from classical times to the present
- Tie: Guide to computer forensics and investigations: processing digital evidence, 5th Edition
- Tie: The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics
- Head first Python
- Legal and ethical issues for health professionals, 4th Edition
- Basics of the U.S. health care system, 3rd Edition
- Classical electrodynamics
- Diffraction gratings
Observation
- What we find most interesting about this year’s top 10 most requested books, is not what’s on the list but what isn’t: not a single popular reading title. Nationwide, novels and short story collections are, by far, the most commonly requested ILL items, so it’s worth exploring why our patrons aren’t requesting them. We suspect this may be because our wonderful Popular Reading displays are providing patrons with books geared toward their interests. However, and here’s where we need to take some time to reflect, it may be because our patrons don’t see ILL as an option for these materials, relying instead on public libraries, or opting to purchase books instead of borrowing them. What do you think, are we meeting our patron’s needs, or is there something more we could be doing?
Hope you found these lists as interesting as we did, and keep the ILL requests coming.
