ArticleReach Revolutionizes Interlibrary Delivery of Journal Articles

The University Library continues to expand and enhance its online services. Recently we introduced the COAST 2.0 interface to the library catalog, with its many "discovery tools" that quickly and efficiently identify, organize and display information resources in the collection. For several years the library has held membership in the LINK+ consortium; CSULB customers can search the combined collections of over 50 libraries and quickly order books and media from them for pickup within 2-3 days. 

Now ArticleReach expands the LINK+ concept to articles in periodicals. A new consortium has been created from a distinguished group of academic libraries worldwide, including:

• The Center for Research Libraries
• Michigan State University Libraries
• Washington State University
• University of Liverpool
• University of Sydney
• University of Oregon

and several others, now including CSULB Library. ArticleReach gives the customers of member libraries access to the combined journal collections of all member institutions.

How does it work?

• Use any of the library's indexes and abstracts to find a journal article on a research topic
• If the article located does not include full text, click on the   [Picture SFX logo]   link to see options for obtaining the article from other sources
• If the full text article is not available from any of the library's own databases the customer will be see a link to connect to ArticleReach
• Clicking on that link will populate an ArticleReach request form and send it immediately to the library that owns the needed journal
• Typically, the article will be scanned and sent by email to the requestor, often on the same day the request has been submitted, or the next day (exclusive of weekends and holidays)

As with LINK+, ArticleReach is "unmediated;" the user initiates the request and there are far fewer human beings processing and delivering the request than in traditional Interlibrary Loan. 

"This is a service that will provide real benefits to our students and faculty," said Roman Kochan, Dean and Director of the University Library, "ArticleReach signals the beginning of a new era of quick, efficient delivery of information to the scholar's desktop. It represents a huge improvement in convenience for our researchers."