Lehigh Carbon Community College enters 89 millionth OCLC ILL request

The Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) Library in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, entered the 89 millionth OCLC Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request on Feb. 22. The request was for an article from a 1915 issue of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. The Free Library of Philadelphia filled the request the next day.

Susan Mattern, librarian, LCCC, entered the request. She said she saw that the millionth request was coming up, so she saved one request to send just before leaving for the day. Her timing turned out to be perfect.

"I was really surprised even though I knew it would be coming up in the next 10 minutes," she said. "It’s luck when it gets to that point. I saw all those zeros and thought 'I’d better print this out right away.'

"Ever since I started working in ILL, the library director had been teasing me about hitting a millionth record," she said. "So I gave him a printout with the number highlighted and jokingly asked for a raise."

Although she did not get the raise, she did report that a cataloger brought in helium balloons the next day and tied them to her chair. "It’s nice when people recognize your work," said Ms. Mattern.

The library plans to use the publicity from OCLC and the 89 millionth ILL request to promote the services of interlibrary loan at LCCC. The ILL Department at LCCC lends approximately 1,200 items a year and borrows about 1,300. This year, LCCC is in the middle of a library automation project and expects the number of borrowing requests to increase when the ILL module comes online. Ms. Mattern, who has worked part time at LCCC for nine years, is the primary ILL staffer. A student also supports the ILL Department for 10 hours a week.

Bethel College Library (OCLC symbol: KSB) of North Newton, Kansas, entered the 88 millionth OCLC ILL request on Jan. 18.

The Lehigh Carbon Community College Library (OCLC symbol: LCY) contains some 50,000 volumes, 460 current periodical titles, over 3,000 audiovisual programs, microforms and an extensive reference collection. LCCC was established in 1966 and serves Lehigh and Carbon counties in Pennsylvania. LCCC library is a member of PALINET, an OCLC-affiliated U.S. regional network.

OCLC is celebrating 20 years of the OCLC Interlibrary Loan service--1979-1999. In the 1997/98 fiscal year, over 6,000 libraries arranged more than 8.2 million loans through the system.