Since 2018, RAILS has offered Find More Illinois to provide library users with seamless access to the catalogs of RAILS consortia and standalone libraries that choose to participate. RAILS developed this as an overlay project to emphasize that the goal is to expand resource sharing by connecting, not replacing, existing integrated library systems.
The University of Illinois at Chicago is an original member of Find More Illinois, and other academic libraries have expressed interest in participation. With input from academic libraries across the state, RAILS have developed a new initiative for academic library participation in Find More Illinois.
RAILS is excited to invite you to be a part of the pilot of our new Find More Illinois Academic Library Lender-Only Initiative, designed to:
- Include academic libraries in broadening the resource sharing landscape across Illinois
- Enable academic libraries to share resources with libraries that don’t have OCLC access
- Increase academic libraries ILL and circulation stats
- Fosters connections between Illinois high school and academic libraries and to add value to high school collections
And our current member libraries tell us that Find More Illinois is quicker and easier to use than OCLC.
Why participate?
- No annual participation fee
- No cost to send items to other libraries
- Be among the first academic libraries to shape the future of participation in state-wide resource sharing with all types of libraries
- Provide valuable feedback to help us refine the program
- RAILS staff provides training, consulting, technical support, and vendor relationship management
What's involved:
- Only items you are willing to share are in the catalog
- MARC record uploads into the FMI union database, updated monthly or at a frequency of the library’s choosing
- Requests are balanced across libraries so as not to overwhelm any one library
- Real-time status of local holdings via Z39.50 (when possible, with the library’s catalog software)
- Statistical reporting
To join:
- Visit the Lender-Only participation form to sign up
- Once enrolled, RAILS staff will contact you with further details about the set-up process
We value your input and look forward to collaborating with you in making the Academic Library Lender-Only Pilot a success!