United States National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

FAQ
DOCLINE -- Select Libraries that Deliver Documents Electronically

Question: How do I find libraries that provide electronic delivery to add to my routing table?
Answer:

To identify preferred lenders, you can search DOCLINE institutions using a combination of key data elements including: Library Group, Delivery Options, Fills Rush Requests, Provides Color Copies, Copy base fee, Number of Holdings, and Region, to name a few.

Note: The described functionality can be achieved automatically by using the routing by library group and alternate delivery method features. Individually adding libraries to your routing table allows you to identify preferred lenders within a library group or if electing not to add the library group to your routing table. You can add the library group itself to a higher numbered cell than the cell with the preferred lenders - requests will not route to a library more than once. When submitting a DOCLINE request based upon the below search, verify that "Email PDF" and "Web PDF" are selected as delivery methods on the Routing Instructions screen with one as the preferred network delivery method and the other as an alternate delivery method.

For example, to find "FreeShare" libraries that provide document delivery by "Email PDF" or "Web PDF", do the following:

  1. Select Institutions from the DOCLINE main menu.
  2. On the Search page, select More Search Options.
  3. Select Library Group from the Search Field list and then select "FreeShare".
  4. Select Add to Search.
  5. Select Delivery Options to narrow your search.
  6. Select the desired delivery options, e.g., "Email PDF", "Web PDF".
  7. Select other desired search limits, e.g., "Hospital" from Library Type, "Not My Routing Table" from Top Filters.
  8. Click ADD TO SEARCH.
  9. Click SEARCH.

The above example will search for "Hospital" libraries in the "FreeShare" library group members that provide delivery by either "Email PDF" OR "Web PDF" AND which are not currently in the routing table of the library performing the search. By default, DOCLINE will include only libraries that are an Open Library and a DOCLINE Participant.

To view ILL service information including charges, contact information, delivery addresses, etc. for each library in the result set, select "Interlibrary loan" from the View option at the bottom of the page and click REFRESH.

When you have identified libraries you want to add to your Routing Table, click the checkbox next to the LIBID and click Add to Routing Table. These libraries will be added to your Routing Table Workspace so that you can add them to individual routing cells at your convenience.

The DOCLINE coordinator at your Regional Medical Library can provide valuable strategies and guidelines for structuring your Routing Table. You may contact your Regional Medical Library at 1-800-338-7657 in the United States or 1-800-668-1222 in Canada. Within DOCLINE, select Contact Us from the top menu and click "Contact Your RML" from the Contact DOCLINE page. You can also click "Contact Your RML" from the DOCLINE system page which is located at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/docline.

Related Questions:
How can I establish defaults for my borrow requests?
How does "Alternate Delivery Method Routing" work?
How does Routing work?
How does routing to a Library Group work?
What happens when I make changes to my Routing Table?

Return to the list of DOCLINE FAQs | Return to the list of NLM FAQs
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/doc_EDD_Search.html

Last reviewed: 17 September 2008
Last updated: 17 September 2008
First published: 25 January 2005
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