Our libraries are currently working on a strategic initiative to enhance the user experience of interlibrary loan and on-shelf request services through enhancements to our interfaces, workflows, and communications. Anecdotally, we know that though our technical systems are very efficient and turnaround times have decreased, patrons still find placing a request to be a black box; so in order to ensure we truly understand and are meeting the needs of users, we conducted research to learn more about how our users interact--successfully or not--with our request services, how much communication they expect from us, and where our current interfaces can be improved. This presentation will discuss what we learned from three different user research studies and how we have begun to implement these findings in our workflows, website and email communications, and interfaces.
