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What is PASCAL?

What is PASCAL Delivers?

What does PASCAL Delivers cost?

What is in the PASCAL Delivers catalog?

When I requested an item, I got the message Sorry, you are not allowed to request this item over PASCAL. What wrong?

What libraries are in the PASCAL Delivers catalog?

When will PASCAL Delivers service be available?

Who can borrow books using PASCAL Delivers?

How quickly can I get my books?

How long can I keep a book I get through PASCAL Delivers?

How many books can I get?

Can I use PASCAL Delivers to get articles?

How is PASCAL Delivers different from Interlibrary Loan?

How do I check out books in person at another PASCAL library?

I'm a student. How will this service work for me?

I'm on the faculty or staff. Can I use this service?

What is the PASCAL Delivers fee for lost books?

I'm a librarian, and I'd like to understand more about how this works.


What is PASCAL?

The Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) is consortium of academic libraries in South Carolina. PASCAL is a strategic initiative launched by South Carolina's public and private academic libraries in conjunction with their parent institutions: the Commission on Higher Education (CHE), the SC Independent Colleges & Universities (SCICU), the Office of State Chief Information Officer, the State Library, and the Department of Archives and History. PASCAL was created to respond to the information-access needs of South Carolinians. Visit us on the web at: http://pascalsc.org


What is PASCAL Delivers?

“PASCAL Delivers” is a rapid book delivery service for the patrons of all PASCAL member institutions. PASCAL Delivers begins with a single, web-based, unified catalog of library holdings. Library users search the PASCAL Catalog, locate books in any member-library, submit an electronic request for delivery of a book to their home institution, and receive those books within a few days. PASCAL Delivers is part of the State-wide Electronic Academic Library.


What does PASCAL Delivers cost?

The PASCAL Delivers service is free to eligible borrowers at PASCALlibraries. The PASCAL Delivers service receives funding through member dues and from the State-wide Electronic Academic Library.

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What is in the PASCAL Delivers catalog?

The PASCAL Delivers catalog is at http://www.pascalcat.org.The PASCAL Delivers catalog is a combined, or "union" catalog -- a listing of items owned by PASCAL member-libraries. The catalog includes books, journals and periodicals, audiovisual materials, sound recordings, electronic resources, government documents, archives and manuscripts, maps, and music scores.

As of September 2009, Pascalcat included 8,192,829 item records. This number will grow as we add the remaining libraries to the catalog.

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When I requested an item, I got the message 'Sorry, you are not allowed to request this item over PASCAL.' What's wrong?

Check to see if the library has an asterisk by its name on the list of Participating Libraries.Libraries with an asterisk are not yet live for requesting. Unfortunately we cannot suppress these materials and still allow the new library to test lending and borrowing. The list of Participating Libraries can also be found in the top menu bar of Pascalcat.

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What libraries are in the PASCAL Delivers catalog?

The PASCAL Delivers catalog reflects the holdings of over 50 academic libraries in South Carolina. To see the most current list of participating libraries, please visit http://www.pascalcat.org/screens/participants.html.

The following Academic Libraries are not yet represented in the PASCAL Delivers catalog or are not participating members.

Library Status
Allen University TBA
Anderson University TBA
Claflin College Indefinite
Clinton Jr. College TBA*
Denmark Technical College TBA*
Morris College In process
State Library of South Carolina TBA*
USC College of Law Indefinite

Libraries listed as “Indefinite” have opted, for one reason or another, not to participate in PASCAL Delivers at this time. Please contact these libraries directly for more details.

TBA” libraries are in early stages of implementation.

*These libraries have not yet begun the implementation process..

NOTE: Implementation Status as of 10/08/2009

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When will PASCAL Delivers service be available?

Fifty of our fifty-eight member-institutions are using PASCAL Delivers now. By the end of 2009, all but 5 higher education institutions in South Carolina will be using PASCAL Delivers. For more detailed information, see the chart above.

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Who can borrow books using PASCAL Delivers?

Current students, faculty, and staff a PASCAL member-librarieshave access to PASCAL Delivers. Through the PASCAL Delivers catalog, books that are not available locally can be requested from other member libraries. Patrons must be “in good standing” at their home library (no overdue books or fines) in order to use the service.PASCAL patrons can also go to other libraries to borrow materials in person; please see “How do I check out books in person at another PASCAL library?” to learn more about this option.

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How quickly can I get my books?

Users typically receive their books within five days of submitting a request.

Budget cuts beginning in 2007-8 resulted in a reduction in our library-to-library delivery schedule from five per week to three days/week. This has resulted in a longer waiting period. Previously our target for putting a book in your hands was three days, with many materials arriving within 24 hours.

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How long can I keep a book I get through PASCAL Delivers?

PASCAL Delivers items can be kept by patrons for up to 6 weeks. No renewals are permitted on PASCAL Delivers items.

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How many books can I get?

All PASCAL Delivers users are allowed to have 25 requests; a “request” is defined as a book at any stage in the system. Outstanding requests that await a reply from a library are requests; books you have in your possession are requests; books you’ve returned to your library that are still en route to the owning library are requests.

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Can I use PASCAL Delivers to get articles, videos, or items other than books?

At this time, PASCAL Delivers is only for books. We hope to be able to expand the service to include article delivery in the future, as the technology matures and funding permits. Some libraries do loan CDs and other AV materials, but they are the exception and not the rule.

The catalog provides links to many electronically accessible materials, based on an individual member-library's access privileges.

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How is PASCAL Delivers different from Interlibrary Loan?

For users, PASCAL Delivers will be faster; for libraries, it will be cheaper. PASCAL Delivers is free for users.

PASCAL Delivers is a patron-initiated system; the patron sends a lending request directly to a lending library without involving the patron’s home institution. The book will be sent to the patron’s home institution, at which point the patron's home library becomes involved with the process. By cutting out the library “middle man,” this system is faster and cheaper for libraries to use.

Traditional interlibrary loan is a mediated service involving complex staff processes, multi-library agreements, and fee structures. Book deliveries in interlibrary loan frequently take anywhere from two to six weeks, and costs for libraries range anywhere from $20 upward to $50. PASCAL Delivers will place books in users' hands within a few days, and processing costs will be considerably less -- perhaps less than $5 per transaction. (Based on data from comparable programs and the Association of Research Libraries).

Interlibrary loan will still play an important role in research library services, but PASCAL Delivers will speed and expand access to many materials, thus making our existing collections more useful.

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How do I check out books in person at another PASCAL library?

If you’re able to use PASCAL Delivers, you can also go in-person to visit another PASCAL Delivers library and check out the book yourself. You will need to present a picture ID and know your institutional ID and the authentication code you use to request books using PASCAL Delivers. For further requirements and details about individual institutions, please see http://pascalsc.org/visitingpatron.html. Note that in-person patrons have different limits from PASCAL Delivers patrons; in-person patrons are limited to three items and the checkout period for these items is three weeks with no renewal.

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I'm a student. How will this service work for me?

From your home-library's web site, there will be a link to PASCAL's catalog.Your home library may be able put a "pass-through link" inside your home catalog, so that if you don't find what you want at home, your search is replicated in Pascalcat. When you find a book you want, click the "request this item" link, select your home institution from the drop-down list, and enter your library card authorization. Your authentication number is something that you'll need to get from your home library. After you've entered your name and unique ID, you'll receive confirmation that your request was successful. In a couple of days, you will receive an email from your home library saying that the PASCAL book you requested is available for pickup. Normally you will receive your request in a few days, depending on the time of day of the request and other workflow factors. When you receive an email that the book is available for pick-up, take your library card with you and you'll check out the book from your home library. When you're finished, you return the book to your home library and they take it from there.

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I'm on the faculty or staff. Can I use this service?

Absolutely! This service is available to anyone who is currently working at a member-institution. If you have questions, you should ask your home library. PASCAL Delivers offers the same access for faculty and staff as it does for students.

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What is the PASCAL Delivers fee for lost books?

ForThere is a $75.00 replacement fee for lost books and a $25 handling fee. After the six week lending period has expired, patrons should receive three overdue notices. After the third overdue notice, patrons will be billed $100.00, reflecting the combined handling fee and lost book fee.

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I'm a librarian
, and I'd like to understand more about how this works.

There are two ways that a patron will "find" Pascalcat. One way is through a link from a library's web site -- either because the patron found it on his own or because a librarian or a professor directed the student to the site. Another way to "find" Pascalcat is that a search in a local library catalog can offer a "pass-through link" to Pascalcat. This pass-through-link only works if both library catalogs use the same software. For an example of a pass-through link, try a search in Clemson's catalog, and look for the PASCAL Delivers logo on the right.

Regardless of how the patron arrives at Pascalcat, a student searches the catalog and, when she finds a book she wants, she clicks the "Request this item" button. She'll be asked which institution she's affiliated with, and she'll have to enter a locally-provided, unique identification number. If she has no overdue fines and if the book is "available" in the catalog, the request will go directly to the lending institution.

Every day, all Pascalcat libraries will download and print their incoming requests; requests that can be "filled" will be pulled from the shelf and sent to the patron's home library. Requests that can't be "filled," because a book is missing from the shelf, for instance, will be "rejected" -- if another copy is available at another PASCAL library, the request will bounce to the next institution. If the request is for an item that isn't available anywhere else, the student will get an email referring her to your local interlibrary loan service. Just like OCLC's Worldcat, library users may not select the "best" item for a request. For instance, a user may request the original edition of The Great Gatsby, which is in Special Collections and is non-circulating, not realizing that a later edition of The Great Gatsby is in the circulating collection, and is indeed available at many PASCAL libraries.

Books are sent by overnight courier, so a book that's picked up at one institution on Monday is delivered to the borrowing institution on Tuesday. The patron's home library will "receive" the book and send an email to the patron notifying her that her PASCAL book is available for pickup. The patron checks the book out from her home library, and keeps it for six weeks. The book is returned to the patron's home library, and the process is reversed until the book ends up back at the home library. Patrons typically can request a book and receive it in a few days, depending on the time of day of the request and other workflow factors.

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Updated 10/26/09