Last month, the Technical Services division of NLM sent us its annual DOCUSER Reporting Level Report. It listed the number of serials holdings statements in Level 3 and Level X for each of the 389 SERHOLD participants in our Region. Level 3 is the preferred method of reporting holdings to SERHOLD, in symbols that can be read by DOCLINE when it routes ILL requests.
So what IS Level X and what does all of this mean? Level X is a method of reporting holdings to SERHOLD in symbols not read by DOCLINE when it routes ILL requests. Therefore, DOCLINE cannot determine which years/volumes of a journal are held by your library when the holdings are in Level X; the system automatically routes requests as if you owned every volume/year of that journal or as if you owned no volume/year of that journal, depending on the publication and acquisition status codes found in the holdings statement. For a lending library, maintaining holdings in Level X can lower the fill rate and increase the ILL workload substantially, while increasing the turnaround time for borrowing libraries. If you often cite NOT as the reason you are unable to fill a request, you may have a large number of holdings in Level X. In effect, Level X holdings may tell a borrower that you can lend items that you do not actually own.
Only eleven libraries (fewer than 3% of Region 7 SERHOLD participants) have more than 10% of their holdings in Level X. An additional 13 libraries have between 5-10% of their holdings in Level X; the remaining 365 libraries have fewer than 5% of their holdings statements in Level X. Three of our Resource Libraries managed to significantly reduce their Level X holdings over this past year.
A letter has been sent to all those libraries which have 5% or more of their holdings reported in Level X. It outlines steps you can take to upgrade these holdings to Level 3, so that DOCLINE can route more accurately. If you would like additional information about how many of your serials titles are in Level X, don't hesitate to contact us. DON'T let Level X holdings reduce your effectiveness as an ILL partner.