[ILL-L] What dept pays for yr ILL borrowing requests?

[Robinson, Arthur]

At LaGrange College in Georgia (GLG), the library budget includes a budget for ILL, and we don't charge patrons (except that if students request something that costs more than $10, we inform them we'll pay $10 if they pay the balance, and don't order unless they agree).*   But we've been able to do this because our payments to other libraries have been low, partly because, like you, we're in Georgia and also an LVIS library, but mainly because we're a small library (about 1100 students) and  don't get a ton of requests.

                

Over the past eight fiscal years (since my first full year here), we've paid an average of $226.52 a year to other libraries (while borrowing an average of 782 items a year).  But I suspect Valdosta has to borrow a lot more than we do, both because you're bigger and because our faculty aren't in a publish-or-perish situation.  (Most years, one of our professors accounts for most of our ILL expenditures.  Last year, we paid $239 to other libraries, and $178 was for one person.)

 

Arthur Robinson (GLG)

 

*This policy is mainly to discourage frivolous requests.  For example, one student wanted us to borrow a book about racing cars (for personal interest, not a course).  Several free libraries had it, but their copies were checked out; the only two libraries that had it on the shelf charged $20.  He wanted us to pay $20 to get it immediately, rather than wait a few weeks and get it free-until he found he'd have to pay part of the charge.  I've also had students request a book that costs $11 and change their minds when they learned they'd have to pay $1 for that.

 


________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Denise L Montgomery
Sent: Wed 9/5/2007 4:51 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: [ILL-L] What dept pays for yr ILL borrowing requests?




I know the subject line, What dept pays for your ILL borrowing
requests? sounds very odd, but the reason I am asking it is because for
years before I came to work here in 1984, our library has always passed
along charges from the supplying libraries to our patrons.
Since I was fairly aggressive about negotiating reciprocal agreements,
we belong to LVIS, and we are lucky enough to be located in GA, the
home of two fine ACRL libraries, Emory and the University of GA, we've
managed to keep it so that only about 3% or less of our requests each
year have charges fro borrowing requests. Still, our patrons, both
students and faculty who face having to pay those charges--we warn them
before we proceed further with the requests--aren't too happy with the
prospect, especially if they've been at another institution where they
pay for all ILL requests. It also puts a crimp in the workflow. And I
am aware that most libraries don't have this problem, which I have been
trying to get changed for years.

My bosses have indicated that they would like to consider the
possibility of changing this policy, so they want some information on
from where in the library's budget other libraries take the funds to
pay for ILL charges from--do they have a budget for ILL? Do they take
it from Reference? Access Services/Circ.? Acquisitions? General
Operating expenses? A slush fund in the director's office safe? Is ILL
expected to be self-supporting by generating enough money from lending
fees from the items it loans out to pay for the stuff it borrows? (Wish
we could do that, but in our case, that just about pays our annual
ILLIAD bill.) Or, do they appeal to the administration for extra funds
to pay for it?

If it helps in formulating your reply, we have a student body of a
little over 10,000 and a faculty of a little over 500. We are a four
year university with a number of master's programs and a couple of
doctoral programs.

                          Denise Montgomery
                          Valdosta State University Library
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