40 per cent of requests were being satis- fied from print collections.
Picture three
generally including a DOI making it sim- ple and efficient to process requests. The speed impact of INCDocs is such that it proved possible to tighten a national ser- vice standard for the expected turnaround time for a request to 24 hours from the previous 48 hours. This reflects around 95 per cent of all INCDocs requests being served within the revised standard. Savings in KLS staff time are apparent. Data gathered before and after implemen- tation on time spent by library staff to source articles was combined with process costing data to provide an estimate that use of INCDocs saves 15,137 hours each year (based on the total volume of doc- ument supply requests recorded in the period 1/4/2022-31/3/2023). This time represents a monetary saving of approxi- mately £500,000, equivalent of 17.75 FTE at NHS entry level band 3.
Further time is saved by not having to update multiple systems and being alerted to immediately available items. Staff time can be redirected to other evidence services
Picture four
to the NHS or to respond to increased demand driven by the enhanced service. “INCDocs has been a game changer for document supply services in England. The service has introduced a high level of efficiency into a system that was frag- mented and complex, this has benefited both library staff and NHS service users. ... following a literature search for one of our clinicians supporting a coroner’s inquest, a clinical research paper was needed as an urgent matter. After sub- mitting the request to the INCDocs sys- tem we had received the article ... within 28 minutes.” – KLS Manager
Building on INCDocs
The nature of knowledge work is that answering one question tends to open up a range of further questions.
A first question concerned the ongoing value of print journals within the NHS document supply mix. Analysis of data around activity in two of the regional NHS document supply systems showed around
Print holdings are not visible in the data passed to Third Iron and lack the DOIs that form the key for requesting in INC- Docs. A sister tool PRINTDocs has been developed creating a single pool of print journal holdings within a Koha catalogue and integrating a requesting system. The result is only two places to rapidly check and the fullest use of NHS collections before turning to paid sources. A second question is what we can learn from the activity data captured by INC- Docs. All participating services receive analytics reports monthly and these are aggregated to offer a national view. This valuable new stream of data is being explored as a means to support collection development and management. By examining the pattern of requests we can identify organisations that might particularly benefit from providing their users with immediate access via a local purchase while widening the pool of supplying libraries. There is the potential to identify frequently requested titles that are not held at all. We can also consider the impact of any proposed cancellations on the collective strength of the network. A final area for consideration is how else shared infrastructure might be used to improve the document supply process. Here we are exploring options to integrate requesting from the Hub directly into the ILL module of the Koha Library Manage- ment Systems used in six NHS regions. Requesting to INCDocs and PRINTDocs can be enabled from within the module along with all local tracking.
Conclusion
By applying the expert knowledge of library teams to the opportunity offered by pooled data in a shared infrastructure the NHS has unlocked higher quality, faster and more comprehensive document supply services. The conversations and ideas pro- voked by this change have the potential to be yet more transformative. IP
References Woodley, Z. (2013) Re: Journal collections – message to Lis-Medical Jiscmail list
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ wa-jisc.exe?A2=ind1301&L=LIS-MEDICAL&O=D&P=109950 (accessed 12/12/2024).
‘‘ Spring 2025
INCDocs has been a game changer for document supply services in England. The service has introduced a high level of efficiency into a system that was fragmen- ted and complex... – KLS Manager
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