Constraints on the library’s budget and space require careful stewardship to ensure that materials purchased contribute value to the collection as evidenced by strong use from the community. Increasingly, consumers expect timeliness and transparency in interactions with businesses and organizations, particularly in response to a request or complaint. For members, the improved “Request to Order” process dramatically increases responsiveness, provides contextual point-of-need information, and decreases the wait time. The improvements also streamline the process for staff, creating efficiencies that save time.

Responsiveness: Members receive automated, but personalized, emails at the time of request, decision, and (if applicable) hold availability.

Contextual Information: If the requested item is not purchased, the email provides an alternative (e.g. link to the ILL request form) and, sometimes, additional information to explain a decision (e.g. limits on how early pre-publication titles can be ordered).

Timeliness: Due to changes that streamlined staff workflow, the average time-to-decision is 1.4 days and time-to-hold 4.8 days. Staff Workload. The streamlined process involves fewer steps for staff, making it easier despite the increased transparency and improved timeliness for members.

The time between a members’ request and the first response from FPL decreased from 20.7 to 1.4 days (93.2% improvement). The time between a members’ request and the hold being placed decreased from 10.6 to 4.7 days (56.3% improvement). Additionally, FPL is able to provide contextual information about the “Request to Order” process, future publication dates, Interlibrary Loan, and best practices for catalog searching at the member’s point of need, when it is most likely to be read and applied. Auto-generated emails and process improvements decreased the steps for staff, reducing staff time required to manage member requests.