Introduction

Overview

Rapido is a discovery-to-delivery library resource sharing platform focused on staff efficiency and patron services that offer streamlined workflows by automating processing, reducing mediation, and freeing up staff time to handle more complex requests.

Rapido performs load balancing within pods to ensure that lending is performed in a balanced manner between the members of the pod.  For more information, see Rapido Pods.

• For staff — Rapido automates and simplifies the borrowing and lending processes, helping staff manage a high volume of requests efficiently.
• For patrons — Rapido provides a central holding index of all Rapido library holdings, including lending terms to ensure they can find the materials they need with a frictionless experience for getting those materials quickly.

Rapido as an enabler for agility is focused on:

• Transforming the way we provide services to our patrons.
• Focusing on automation and unmediated processes to meet demand.
• Providing a wide community for sharing.

Rapido is built on the Alma cloud platform and includes the most advanced user experience to help easily find the requests you need to work on. This ensures smooth integration with Alma as well as other platform products and analytics. All administration tasks described in this document require a valid Alma login. Your user account must have the roles presented in each section to perform the tasks in that section. Only the features relevant for your roles are displayed in the user interface. Additionally, a discovery platform such as Primo VE is a requirement for working with Rapido.

Libraries that are not using Alma as their library management system may be using Rapido in a Starter mode. In this case, Rapido is used only for digital document delivery :

• Rapido borrower and lender task lists can be used by library staff for processing requests
• Rapido discovery interface can be used by patrons to get digital request offers

Rapido Starter can be integrated with the library’s Integrated Library System (ILS) so that Rapido pulls patron information from the ILS at the point in time when the patron logs in to the discovery interface to place a request. Setting this integration is described in the Look Up User section of the Rapido/ILS integration Profile page.

Libraries that are not using Alma may also be using Rapido for a full Rapido experience:

• Rapido borrower and lender task lists can be used by library staff for processing requests. Library staff actions in the Rapido task lists automatically update the ILS. For example, a borrower receiving a physical item automatically creates a temporary item in the ILS, and the lender shipping of an item automatically marks the item as not in place in the ILS. Setting this integration is described in the Rapido/ILS integration Profile page.
• Rapido discovery interface can be used by patrons to get both digital and physical request offers.

As in the case of Rapido Starter, an integration can be set up so that Rapido pulls patron information from the ILS at the point in time where the patron logs in to the discovery interface to place a request. Setting this integration is described in the Look Up User section of the Rapido/ILS integration Profile page.

In either case, refer to the Additional Links page for more information on Rapido features that may be relevant for a library that is not using Alma.

Key Components 

Built on the Ex Libris higher — ed cloud platform, Rapido includes: 

• Shared holding index — Search beyond your library. Rapido has all the holdings of our Alma customers. When expanding your search beyond your catalog, the resources of your resource sharing Rapido partners are presented together with other CDI results. For more information, see Patron Experience.
• Join existing pods and set pod priorities to determine the terms your users receive — A pod is a group of resource-sharing libraries that share resources under the same terms and conditions
  • Decide which pods you want to join based on their terms and existing collaborations/networks
  • Define which items you want to share in each pod
  • Define the pod priority
• Patron focused experience — Libraries can decide on maximum cost and maximum delivery time per loan as well as different policies for different users (such as staff versus undergraduates)
• Automated flows — Rapido does it all behind the scenes in a smart and efficient way, even before a request is submitted by providing best offers to patrons
  • Confirms requests for data completeness
  • Checks for duplicates
  • Validates local inventory
  • Searches for open access alternatives (for article delivery)
  • Finds the best lender based on library preferences
  • Displays the terms of use to patrons
• Document delivery via RapidILL