What an interesting discussion question. I do not done any systematic review on the issue, nor can offer up a clear and concise explanation on the “why they didn’t bother.”
But, I would like to ask a couple of questions: how difficult is it for the patron to request something on ILL? Perhaps why they didn’t bother with ILL is that they did
not know how or there were too many additional steps for them to submit a request. Also, what is your ILL turn-around time for an article? Did the patrons have the ability to wait a day, two days, a week for the material? Are the patrons seek out assistance
to locate another suitable option for the unavailable/unsubscribed material? Perhaps they did not need that particular article, but something similar was sufficient. How does one gather any of that data? Does it matter?
--Susan
From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG]
On Behalf Of Melissa Belvadi
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 4:13 AM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: [SERIALST] ILL data as basis for new subs (or not)
Hi, all.
I occasionally see an article in our professional literature about how well ILL article request data does (not) reflect likely demand, and that definitely seems to reflect our own experience
from my somewhat informal analysis of our own data.
But I seem to have trouble persuading my colleagues here about this.
For example, I'll present JR2 turnaway data and "abstracts viewed" in EBSCO and Proquest as evidence for adding a subscription, but they'll respond that :"if they didn't bother to ILL it, then
they don't really need it".
Has anyone done, either for publication or for internal use that you can share with me, some kind of "systematic review" on this issue?
Or even if you have a clear and concise explanation of why that "they didn't bother" reasoning is not an appropriate conclusion to draw, I would appreciate that too. I haven't found the right
way to articulate why I think that's wrong.
Or if you agree with my colleagues, tell me that too!
Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi@upei.ca 
902-566-0581
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