[ILL-L] Covering charges for your ILL patrons

[Andrea Craley]

January 18, 2008

Hi there,

Harford Community College does not cover ILL charges for ILL borrowing requests from its patrons. We are an LVIS Library, so I generally use all free holding libraries when I place borrowing requests. We do ask our patrons to list a max cost if they can, but most will put down zero in their requests. I have a few county residents who may put down a max cost of $10-$20 if they really want an item. But most students and faculty/staff will not pay. Most of my requests will contain a max cost of zero (and a borrowing note to please condition first if you do charge) to holding libraries who outright state no loan or copy charges or state reciprocal, or state "we charge what you charge us" (which would be free, because we don't charge for loan or copy). I also submit to libraries who still do not have any policies in the Policy Directory after these many years since it's been up (a pet peeve and a whole other type of discussion!), because I believe they are then fair game - they can then condition me or just outright deny the request then if they have any policies in place that I cannot find.

If I exhaust all free holding libraries first and cannot have an item sent, I then contact my patron with the loan and copy fees of the remaining holding libraries. If they are still not willing to pay a cost, then I do not submit any additional requests and that's the end of it. If the patron gives me a final max cost, then I will submit a new request to the holding libraries that match that max cost. Because of all of this, we do not do IFM, so when I receive an invoice from a lending library  I then alert the patron to how to make out a check for the lending institution, they get it to me, and I send it to the lending institution. But this all happens very rarely, because most of my patrons are not willing to pay.

Since 2005, we began charging our county residents a $3 processing fee to us for all ILL borrowing requests. The county resident status is anyone in Harford county, another MD county, or out-of-state (PA, DE, and DC borders are all close) who has an HCC Library card but no affiliation with the campus as student or employee. We have no alumni status, so upon graduation a student would become county resident status. At one point I was swamped pretty heavily with county resident requests (despite our 5 items/per week, I was getting piles of requests to work on each week from some), so this $3 processing helped to relieve overuse.

Yes, we do have our ILL policies up on our webpage that state the 5 items per week, the $3 county resident processing fee, and that all borrowing patrons are responsible for any loan/copy charges and the condition of items in their care: http://www.harford.edu/Library/lib_info/ill.asp?FA=Library&FB=

And yes  I do have to remind some patrons (students, staff, faculty, county residents) through email or phone about these policies from time to time when I receive their requests.

Hope this helps!
Andie Craley
Harford Community College Library ILL (HAR)

Andie Craley, MS/ILS
Library Technician - Specialist IV
Government Documents
Interlibrary Loan Borrowing Contact
Harford Community College Library
401 Thomas Run Road
Bel Air, MD 21015-1698
PHONE:  410-836-4000, Ext. # 7143
FAX:  410-836-4137
EMAIL:  acraley at harford.edu


>>> Maureen McCloskey <mmcclosk at nicoletcollege.edu> 1/18/2008 10:54 AM >>>

I will look for free places first and then notify the patron that we cannot
get it free and ask them how much they are willing to pay.  Most patrons
will give me a limit and if I can find it for that amount, I will order it.
If not, we do not order it.  This happens so rarely, that it is not an
issue.  And no, our patrons do not order indiscriminately because it is
free.

Maureen

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have
and keep, 
the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be. --George Santayana

_______________________________________________

Maureen McCloskey, Head of Access Services  

Richard J. Brown Library, Nicolet College, 

P.O.Box 518, Highway G, Rhinelander, WI 54501  

Voice:  715-365-4606  Fax:715:365-4404

_______________________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Joanne Elpern
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:35 AM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Covering charges for your ILL patrons


Hi,

Just curious...  When those of you who cover interlibrary loan charges for
your patrons find in your searching that an item isn't available for free,
do you just automatically order the item and take care of any payment
without the patron ever knowing that you had to pay for it?

How do you handle heavy borrowers who may be ordering lots of stuff
indiscriminately, thinking that all is free?  Do you notify them somehow
before you actually place the order with an email message, tactfully
letting them know that the item they want isn't free but you'd be happy to
cover it if they feel it's important to their research?

Do you set a limit that you will spend per individual?  Do you have a
statement somewhere on your library home page under interlibary loan
stating this?

We are a library which up until now has passed  charges on to our patrons
for any items we've been unable to obtain free of charge.  Our policy may
be changing, but I'm not sure how to keep future expenditures such as these
from overwhelming us.

--Joanne Elpern, Library Technician
Western Connecticut State Univ. - ILL Dept. (CTD)





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