The application and IT ecosystem of academic libraries typically includes multiple systems, with crucial functions requiring using or sharing information between them. However, library systems are often not well integrated, making workflows and system interactions less than optimal for both staff and patrons. The method to integrate systems that the IDS Project took was to create a middleware platform, IDS Logic, that can connect multiple library systems and open or vendor web services to create the best resource sharing experience for staff and patrons.

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Determining if items are available is a major part of Interlibrary Loan work. Many libraries try to minimize staff time spent on determining availability by investing in circulation based resource sharing systems that require a major investment in time and funds, and then work only for the libraries within the circulation based system. The IDS Project created a new solution, Lending Availability Service, to automatically determine availability through software that is integrated within the resource sharing software, ILLiad. The Lending Availability Service determines availability for any requests a library receives, and can automate portions of the ILL workflow that require determining whether an item is on the shelf or in a collection that can be lent. The Lending Availability Service is highly configurable and was designed with ILL workflows in mind, and overcomes problematic areas in workflows to allow for highly optimized resource sharing through automatic lookups of availability. ADVANCEMENTS IN REAL-TIME AVAILABILITY IN INTERLIBRARY LOAN 3 Advancements in Real-Time Availability in Interlibrary Loan Although there has been a large amount of technological development in libraries over the past decade, especially in the area of resource sharing, basic issues such as determining the availability of items for loan via Interlibrary Loan still present significant problems for most libraries. Existing availability software usually exists as a closed system, and will only work with other libraries using the same system, or requires availability to be checked at the point of request by the patron. As availability checking is often the one area of resource sharing that is not consistently automated, availability leads to higher costs in Interlibrary Loan. With the ability to automate availability checking for ILL requests regardless of what library they came from, libraries can decrease ILL costs. To meet the needs of reliable and comprehensive availability checking, and fill the gap in software that can work with a variety of systems and can focus on automating availability when the library is a lender, the IDS Project created the Lending Availability Service application. Literature Review Though library consortia partner together to ensure that resource sharing is most effective among its members, according to Thomas Bruno (2013), "they still suffer from the same basic problems that libraries using Worldcat Resource Sharing experience, such as lack of real-time availability" (p.47). Bruno goes on to chronicle how many consortia have addressed the issue of real-time availability: shared or union catalogs (2013, p. 47). Real-time availability and the ability to offer unmediated access to collections is crucial to extending access to the collections of other libraries, and there are multiple programs such as Borrow Direct and the Committee on Institutional Cooperation libraries that utilize Circulation standards such as the National Circulation Interoperability Standards (NCIP) (Bruno, 2013, p. 48). Bruno identifies one

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Electronic subscriptions occupy an ever increasing majority of budgets and prevent libraries from expanding services in other areas. There are few attractive options for libraries who want to provide access to research materials to users in a way that is cost effective and simple for users. Libraries are caught between subscriptions to single journals, large packages, or article-level purchasing that is either not instant or must allow access to everyone, which can quickly become costly. The IDS Article Gateway platform, developed by the IDS Project and SUNY Polytechnic Institute Library, uses resource-sharing technology and workflows to deliver fast or instant access to research material to users in a way that involves little or no staff time and removes as many barriers to user access as possible. Where resource sharing has typically sought to deliver articles in one to two days, libraries using Article Gateway deliver articles either within a few minutes or a few hours.