SUNY Library Services (SLS)

The SUNY system uses Alma's peer-to-peer resource sharing functionality for physical resource sharing between campuses. SLS maintains wide-ranging documentation on our resource sharing workflows, policies, and third party integrations.

Some SUNY libraries are also using Alma's peer-to-peer resource sharing functionality for article borrowing and lending. If your campus is interested in using Alma for article borrowing and lending, please email info@sunyolis.libanswers.com. 

SUNY is actively looking to expand it's Alma resource sharing network to include non-SUNY libraries. To date, we have added approximately 90 Alma institutions to our resource sharing network, including libraries from the following consortia:

• California State Universities (CSU)
• City University of New York (CUNY)
• Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU)
• ConnectNY
• Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC)
• Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL)
• Orbis Cascade Alliance
• Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL)
• Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC)

If your library or consortium is interested in Alma peer-to-peer resource sharing with the SUNY system, please email info@sunyolis.libanswers.com.

Why is eBook lending important?

• Method to provide access amid finite budgets and limited physical space
• Ebook Interlibrary Loan (ILL) represents an important option for libraries to provide patrons access to content beyond their respective collections
• The inability to use eBook ILL creates a significant gap in library access and in the institution's ability to efficiently fulfill niche requests

Scope:

The SUNY eBook Lending Project is a collaboration between Proquest and SUNY, designed to develop processes for lending eBook titles to users from any SUNY campus who has chosen to participate in the pilot. Traditionally, eBooks purchased by a campus would only be available for that campus's students, faculty, and staff, but this project opens that up to allow any participating campus's users to borrow selective titles owned by other campuses. Not all books will be available across SUNY: the pilot is limited to publishers who have agreed to participate in the pilot.

The following campuses have agreed to participate in this pilot project:

• Adirondack, Albany, Binghamton, Brockport, Broome, Cayuga, Clinton, Cobleskill, Corning, Cortland, Delhi, Empire State College, Farmingdale, Fashion Institute of Technology, Fredonia, Geneseo, Herkimer, Hudson Valley, SUNY Maritime, Mohawk Valley, Monroe, Morrisville, New Paltz, Old Westbury, Oneonta, Onondaga, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Purchase, SUNY ESF, SUNY Polytechnic, Schenectady, Ulster, University at Buffalo

The following publishers are participating in the project:

• Taylor and Francis: (no textbooks or content newer than pub year = 2019)​
• Brill​
• NYU Press​
• OUP​
• Duke​
• Bloomsbury​

Management:

Because of challenges with routing eBook requests through Alma Resource Sharing and ILLiad, SUNY Library Services will be filling requests for most of the participating campuses. This is a departure from traditional campus-managed interlibrary loan, and may lead to some questions and confusion for the end user.

Workflow:

• Borrowable eBooks will appear as Available in the participating campus's Primo, and the full text "Request Access" link will take the user to a form that automatically populates the title, ISBN, and author of the requested work. The user is asked to fill in their name, email, and campus. There is no way to force the user to use their campus email address.
• The form sends a new ticket announcement to SUNY Library Services staff, who will monitor the queue and fulfill requests M-F 8am-4pm. Users will receive notice from info@sunyolis.libanswers.com as to whether the item is available (the message will include a link to the content) or if all copies are checked out (the message will include expected availability date).
• The user will follow the link to the eBook Central platform, where they will have access to the book for two weeks, at which point the link will stop working. The user may use the online reader to access the book, or download it for use with the Adobe Digital Editions App. Proquest download info. 
• The EILL patron will have a nearly complete Reader experience. They will be blocked from annotations, bookmarks, bookshelf, highlighting and navigating into the rest of the Lending Library’s site. They will have access to citation and be able to change language under Settings.
• If the book is available for Full Download, the book will be downloaded based on how many days are left remaining in the 2 week expiration period. Since we only loan for 1 day periods, the longest loan possible will be for 13 days. If less than 24 hours are left in the 2 week period and the EILL user wants to download the book, Full Download will not be allowed. They will still be able to use the book in the Reader.

Help:

Contact info@sunyolis.libanswers.com with any questions about this project.