As part of its current Strategic Plan, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has retired their previous DOCLINE interlibrary loan request/routing platform and launched a completely rewritten DOCLINE 6.1. Their transition team adopted an "agile development" model which releases "basic functionality" and then continues developing and improving in response to user feedback. Timely communication from the participating libraries is essential to guide the process.

The project schedule was ambitious: libraries were informed of the project in June 2018, and instructed in how to create the new, more secure, log-in accounts. The NLM team then began building the basic new DOCLINE structure. By October 2018 the existing system data was imported into new DOCLINE. November 2018 brought interface preview and log-in testing for all libraries, and beta-testing for a selected few (not Dana!). In February 28, 2019 borrowing ceased in the old DOCLINE, with limited access to complete in-process lending. In March 4, 2019 DOCLINE 6.1 was released with full functioning.

The results were surprisingly good: by March 14, over 32,000 requests had been processed in the new DOCLINE. It is still a work in progress by definition, and many libraries are working out individual issues, but overall the project has been a success! 

At Dana we're learning to master the new user interface and advocating with the developers for some time-saving features. We are keeping up with our usual processing turn-around times, but please be aware that other libraries may take longer to send materials to us. 

If you have any questions, or suggestions, please contact Laura Haines.