[ILL-L] Borrow issue - options to consider

[Cyril Oberlander]

Hello Nora and Everyone,

 

Just want to describe four ways I have handled those pesky special issues,
when a user requests a bunch of articles from a single issue.

 

a.       Buy the issue & give to the user:

One of my favorite practices is purchasing the issue from the publisher.
While a ~$50 dollar issue might sound like a lot, it's not nearly the cost
of the copyright fees, not including the lender fees, for traditional ILL
borrowing.  The big gotcha for that service is the turnaround time; some
publishers are very good about delivering the issue within 8 days, while
others may take 2 weeks - so looking at the need by date is a factor.  The
reason I would give the issue to the user is that cataloging special issues
is not practical, and looks awful in the OPAC.

 

b.      Buy the full-text articles from the publisher:
http://del.icio.us/InterlibraryLoan/pay-per-view (a short list of some
publisher pay-per-view sites)

Strangely enough, sometimes buying the articles for users is a lot less
expensive than paying copyright and/or lender fees; pay-per-view is a great
option if turnaround time (immediate access) or color PDFs is critical.

 

c.       Borrow the issue - not easy, as many libraries will say no, so to
speed the process up, it's better to call ahead and confirm the willingness
to lend that issue because you may go through 15 non-circulating reasons for
no.

 

d.      Traditional "Borrow" articles - pay the copyright and possible
lender fees, or traditional document supply.  

 

I do not limit users from requesting a set of articles in special issues
because it's part of the business of supporting their research, and as a
researcher who finds an occasional special issue with a topic in my interest
area, I find those special issues worth reading.  

 

Hope this helps, best wishes, 

 

Cyril

Cyril Oberlander

Associate Director

Milne Library, SUNY College at Geneseo

1 College Circle

Geneseo, NY 14454

TEL: 585-245-5528

FAX: 585-285-5769

Skype: cyriloberlander

AIM: electronicCyril

 

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