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Camino, a patron-initiated borrowing system, operates within the SCELC consortium made up of private academic libraries in California. OCLC's WorldCat Navigator Request Engine is the backbone of this service, because it works with all ILS systems and integrates with discovery layers and interlibrary loan. Camino is administrated by a user group which sets policies and procedures and guides implementation for new members.

Demands for information resources are increasing while libraries are facing decreasing budgets and lessening staffing support. Interlibrary loan and consortial services can help libraries expand access to collections. Patron-initiated borrowing systems are a current trend in libraries, but seamlessly integrating them is challenging. This article analyzes problems in patron-initiated consortial resource sharing, introducing a new generation service which combines complex library systems and allows them to work together in real-time availability: the online public access catalog (OPAC), a consortial borrowing system, an interlibrary loan system, an integrated library system, and an authentication system. The service seamlessly integrated a new discovery tool, WorldCat Local, with local, consortial, and worldwide resource sharing systems. Patron requests are automatically transferred from system to system based on the item's availability, maintaining rapid delivery.

Purpose– This paper aims to study streamlined request services based on discrete systems’ integration in an academic library. The integration of discrete systems allows patrons to use the library’s online public access catalog to send requests and have the requests automatically transferred to the local integrated library system (ILS), the consortia borrowing system, and an interlibrary loan system. The integration of discrete systems also allows adding the consortia service without adding any library staff.Design/methodology/approach– The authors introduce library holdings behind the search interface, the discrete library systems and the authentication system. The paper illustrates how patron requests can be automatically transferred to discrete library systems.Findings– Resource sharing has become a hot topic in the library world where libraries are facing budget cuts, space limits and employee shortage challenges. Systems’ integration will help libraries to add new services without adding staff.Practical implications– The consortia borrowing system can be seamlessly integrated into discrete library systems and a campus authentication system. Pepperdine University’s experience can serve as an example for libraries which have a plan to implement consortia borrowing systems or want to streamline their workflows.Originality/value– This paper takes a fresh look at the traditional request services using cloud-based systems.

This article describes the reasons why Pepperdine University Libraries decided to move to the next-generation technology of WMS as our library system. WMS is an integrated library system hosted by OCLC that is “in the Cloud.” Pepperdine was one of the first libraries to go live with WMS, and in the article we focus on implementation process, circulation, course reserves, and holds. Although WMS is not a perfect system, we believe that libraries are poised to benefit from the next generation of library systems, such as WMS.