E-ZBorrow Upgrade Coming Soon!

Using E-ZBorrow is about to get easier for Gumberg Library users as software changes will streamline the book-borrowing process. The new E-ZBorrow website, powered by Relais software, becomes operational the week of February 14.

PALCI, a group of academic libraries with a reciprocal lending and borrowing agreement, developed E-ZBorrow in 2004. The resource, which is a self-serve version of interlibrary loan, enables a user to search the library holdings of more than 50 colleges and universities and then request that a book be sent to a library on his or her campus.

One frustration of the outgoing system has been that it divides libraries into three groups and requires users to search each set individually to find a desired title. Often, a user who is unaware of this arrangement stops after the first failed attempt. Under the new system, one search simultaneously scans the catalogs of all participating PALCI libraries.

Users can also expect better results because of an advanced search option that will enable them to narrow their inquiries. Results will be displayed in order of relevance and can also be sorted by author, title, newest, or oldest. Response time for a search will be almost immediate.

E-ZBorrow is a popular resource, with member libraries completing about 5,000 transactions in an average week. Last year, Gumberg Library borrowed 5,382 books for Duquesne users via E-ZBorrow and loaned 5,547 books to other E-ZBorrow participating libraries. Please keep an eye out for more information as we move closer to implementation of this promising enhanced service.