Illinois Heartland Library System Transforms Interlibrary Loan Process With New Sorting Machines
EDWARDSVILLE – Your requests are about to arrive at your library faster thanks to the Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS), the organization that handles interlibrary loan delivery throughout southern and central Illinois. It is now stepping into the future with a state-of-the-art automated material handling system. New Lyngsoe Sort Mate machines at IHLS hubs in Carbondale, Champaign, and Edwardsville are streamlining the delivery process to improve service for library patrons across the region. This significant upgrade marks a major step toward faster access to materials for patrons. Illinois Heartland Library System’s three hubs process over 3 million interlibrary loan items each year. Previously, system staff hand-sorted each of these items on their way to the borrower and on their return. This manual sorting process, which involved coordinating materials between 472 libraries, required extensive labor and time. Now, most materials are automatically sorted, reducing
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