Outstanding Unit

The Interlibrary Loan staff (clockwise from left): Barbara Schaper, Steve Wynn, Rahme Ashour and Diana Kaylor.

Facilitating an often unrecognized but critically important service, the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) office with Wright State University Libraries is the winner of the Outstanding Unit award. The ILL provides Wright State with cutting-edge research support by obtaining information that is not accessible on campus. Though not top of mind for many, ILL is at the heart of the university’s identity as a research institution.

Faculty and students performing research heavily rely on the service ILL provides and share that, “staff are always professional and often go above and beyond what is asked of them.”

Further testimonials from faculty include:

“In my almost 13 years at Wright State, I have never had better or more consistent service from a university service: I’ve even had 24-hour turnaround on requests on some occasions. The work that the people in ILL accomplish is one of those quiet jobs that seldom gets recognition.”

“The interlibrary loan program and staff help my students expand their research field. After a quick session with the librarians, my students no longer feel research bound by either Wright State print sources or Google.”

Faculty members also reiterated their praise for the unit by calling attention to the changing landscape for conducting research that includes rising journal subscription costs and the global dispersal of research production. Having a unit that functions so effectively and seamlessly to gather the materials they need to consult is crucial to keeping their scholarship relevant and up to date.