LRC Update: News Blog for the James A. Zimble Learning Resource Center

LRC Retires Bridge Article Request Form

by Alison Rollins on 2021-03-01T09:43:04-05:00 | 0 Comments

The LRC has retired our Bridge Article Request form after nearly 14 months of service and 4,664 requests. The Bridge Article request form was, for a while, the LRC's sole mechanism of connecting off-campus patrons to full-text, electronic access. Patrons could complete the form, providing the citation and their best contact information, and LRC staff on-site would retrieve and deliver the article, placing an ILL request when a requested article was not owned. At its peak, LRC staff will fill 100-300 article requests per week.

The form was critical in helping patrons connect to full-text electronic content over the past year, due to:

the old ER LRC website becoming unavailable off-campus in December 2019;
the new LRC website not coming online until April 2020; and
the pandemic forcing most patrons to work remotely.

While the Bridge Article request form, built with a Google Form, was not an elegant solution (every request had to be individually resolved and tracked), it allowed the LRC to continue to provide essential services during a catastrophic website outage. LRC Staff members Daniel, Dakota, Arthur, Linda, Rhonda, Alison, and Raji worked to fill requests.

Most regular patrons should now be able to log into the new LRC website themselves to access articles and ILL directly. Those who still need accounts (mostly alumni, non-billeted faculty, and HJF staff who aren't at USU) are able to request accounts.