From Fee to Free: How our library moved from a paid to a free ILL service

Since summer 2022, our interlibrary loan service has become free of charge for ULiège students, faculty, and staff members. A feasibility study, started in 2019, was completed 3 years later. In March 2020, because of COVID-19, ILL service had become temporarily free for the ULiège community. This was a great opportunity for a real two-year pilot phase. Thanks to the length of the pilot, solid statistics and usage data were obtained and the ILL operators had two years' experience in a free context. Additionally, changes in our workflows such as a new subscription to RapidILL, peer-to-peer resource sharing between Alma institutions and more automation in some tasks have reduced our ILL charges. As a result of the feasibility study, the two-year pilot, some changes in our workflows, and based on reactions of users and ILL staff, it was decided to keep a free ILL service for the ULiège community, with some safeguards to prevent abuses and avoid uncontrolled costs.