Announcements

Ex Libris acquires RapidILL

We are excited to announce that Ex Libris (a ProQuest company) has acquired RapidILL as part of its strategy to broaden its offering of library services, now focusing on resource sharing.

Ex Libris and the RapidILL team will work together to support, grow, and enhance the RapidILL service, while also collaborating on new solutions for resource sharing and interlibrary lending.


Official press release

Blog post


What does this mean for you?

Nothing has changed for our current customers, except that RapidILL now has more resources to continue adding value for you and other libraries around the world.


What does this mean for the RapidILL team?

The RapidILL team is now part of the Ex Libris family! Our offices remain in Fort Collins, Colorado and we are dedicated to continuing the development of resource sharing solutions together with Ex Libris.

Revolutionary resource-sharing

Articles, Book Chapters, and Books

Less than 24-hour turnaround time

94% or better fill rate

Innovative delivery options

Outstanding service to your users

Proven, measurable savings for your staff and library

Tiered resource sharing method that groups similar libraries to maximize borrowing/lending parity

Rapid to the Rescue

In the 2016-2017 academic year, the ILL department experienced a nearly 60% increase in the number of article requests made by our patrons. Since then, they have not retreated, and our article volume remains just as high.


Many of these were for articles in health-related fields, so our Docline EFTS charges skyrocketed. We were also spending more than projected in OCLC IFM fees for materials we weren't acquiring through Docline.


When we projected our ILL fee costs would double in the next fiscal year, I worked quickly to convince our library's leadership to implement RapidILL...and it was a lifesaver. The 2017-2018 academic year was our first full year on Rapid, and in one year, we save $20,000 in ILL fees alone.


The RapidILL staff were very communicative and easy to work with, and the implementation went smoothly. Our patrons are pleased with the speed of delivery, the ILL Borrowing staff are pleased with the level of automation it brings to their work (so they can work on more complex tasks). And our ILL Lending staff were not overtaxed with an influx of requests from our new RapidILL library partners, due to RapidILL's ability to load-balance.


We are now implementing RapidR to save us even more on loan requests!


Jennifer Salvo-Eaton

Head of Resource Sharing & Graduate Student Services

University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMK)

Interested in learning how RapidILL will save your staff time and library money?

Click our Public Information link. Have a question about Rapid? Contact Rapid staff any time by sending an email message to: RapidILL@exlibrisgroup.com

About Rapid

RapidILL will continue to serve our customers and will operate as a flexible and collaborative solution.  We will also be working with Ex Libris on a new resource sharing platform that will integrate aspects of Project Bedrock, a resource sharing service that the RapidILL team began developing in 2018.

RapidILL is a unique resource sharing system that was designed by the Interlibrary Loan staff at Colorado State University Libraries.


Following a devastating flood in July of 1997, RapidILL was developed to provide very fast, cost effective article requesting and delivery through Interlibrary Loan. RapidILL was designed by Interlibrary Loan staff for Interlibrary Loan staff.

RapidILLa has 4 features that set it apart from other resource sharing systems.


  1. The software that runs the Rapid system was designed specifically for resource sharing. Among its many features are automatic processing, routing and load leveling.
  2. The holdings database is tailored to resource sharing needs. The database matches requests down to the year level.
  3. Every RapidILL library signs a contract that includes peer to peer service commitments. Service performance is closely monitored by Rapid staff.
  4. The innovative RapidX feature.

RapidILL is composed of groups of libraries referred to as 'pods'. Pods are created to support peer or consortium resource sharing.

Read More FAQs

Rapid Monthly Statistics

System Averages October-2020

Borrowing Requests Percent of Requests Filled Average Filled Turn Around Time (Hours)
131,702 97% 11.65

Current Members

Academic M
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Academic Pod E (Extensive)
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Academic Pod I (Intensive)
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Appalachian Central Gulf
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ARL Pod
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ASERL
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Atlantic
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Australia and New Zealand
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Boston Library Consortium
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California
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ConnectNY
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Cosmo Pod
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EAST
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Great Northern
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Israel
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JULAC Pod
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Maryland
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Medical Pod
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Michigan Pod
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New England
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Oberlin Pod
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Orbis Cascade Alliance
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PALCI Pod
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Phoenix
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Prospector
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SCELC
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SECAC
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Taiwan
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United Kingdom
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University of Wisconsin
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VALE Pod
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Academic M
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