[ILL-L] Question on IFLA vouchers

[Joe Ellison]

The IFLA vouchers are useful if you tend to borrow from overseas 
libraries. Those who are not on OCLC cannot, obviously, accept IFM 
payments. At that point, it's easier and cheaper for your library to 
have purchased IFLA vouchers to pay for such transactions. If you 
purchase them directly from IFLA, they require a minimum order of 100 
euros. For the past several years, though, BCR has been selling them 
in small quantities for dollars 
<http://www.bcr.org/resourcesharing/ifla-vouchers.html>. IFLA's site 
includes a list of officially participating libraries 
<http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/p1/partcpnt.htm>.

If you borrow from non-OCLC, non-IFM-using overseas libraries 
infrequently, it may be easier to wait until the need arises and then 
purchase what you need from a listmember with vouchers to spare. Then 
you can use a dummy request to pay for them via IFM, saving you the 
$5 shipping & handling fee from BCR, and your institution the cost of 
cutting a check (about $50).

Joe Ellison

At 09:14 AM 12/18/2007, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>I've seen the term IFLA vouchers a number of times and gather that 
>there are a way to make payments to other libraries without fussing 
>over checks, etc.  My question is this:  We handle about 2000 
>requests a year and see it continuing to increase (we had a 22% 
>increase last year) is it worth it for my library to invest in a 
>few?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!
>Andrew

Joe Ellison
Document Delivery Assistant, Transportation Library (OCLC symbol JCR)
Northwestern University Library, 1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston, IL  60208-2300
phone: (847)491-8600, fax: (847)491-8601
j-ellison at northwestern.edu
ARIEL: 129.105.19.35 or staff019035.library.northwestern.edu
Visit the Transportation Library: 
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation