ILL :
Transforming the
Library Experience
David Henige University of Wisconsin – Madison
Almost exactly fifty years ago , in the fall of 1967 , I washed up on the campus of the University of Wisconsin – Madison as a graduate student in African history . I had spent the previous eight years well outside academia and was hating it . One of the reasons for this dissatisfaction was my inability to secure a broad range of materials from the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library ( TPL ). I was familiar with TPL largely because I had worked there from 1953 to 1956 as a high-school and college student . A fine WPAfunded library , it no doubt served its core clientele — but me , not so much .
No surprise then that the very first place on campus I scoped out was Memorial Library , whose formidable bulk was less formidable than it was to become during the next twenty years , but still leap-years better than TPL . The resources of Memorial — and the numerous specialized libraries on campus — dwarfed those of TPL . Moreover , Memorial ’ s cavernous stacks were more redolent of the stereotypical library , with aisle after endless aisle of choc-a-bloc with rows of books with plenty of dust on them , virtually no natural lighting , execrable study carrels , and mediocre ventilation . I loved it all and managed to visit there almost every weekday . At the time , entry to the stacks was by way of a single portal and available only to graduate students , allowing us to feel ever so slightly superior to the rest of the student population , who were forced to turn in written requests for all materials in Memorial ’ s stacks .
My first visit was to ILL , which at the time was housed in quite a small office attached to the General Reference Department . I was immediately made to feel at home by the librarian and half assigned to ordering materials , mostly for in-house use . Several years later the General Reference Department moved to newer and larger quarters , and I tagged along . My first and lasting impression was the empathetic interest shown by the ILL staff . They taught users how to make best use of such finding tools as the Pre-1956 Imprints , through which ILL patrons became indoctrinated on bibliographic usages just in time for them all to change . . .
At first requests were limited to four per week , and I was soon up to speed . Given the numbers of real and potential users , this must have been a heavy load for the librarian and the student helpers . It was also fairly difficult to order materials , since users were requested to provide a citation , preferably from some canonical index or another , to ensure that the item requested did actually exist and in findable shape ( corporate entities , pseudonyms , particular editions , and the like ). Users tended to learn from their mistakes !
14 | LIBRARIES Spring 2018