[ILL-L] Help please, your feedback requested

[Campbell, Heather]

 You wrote:  In this case, however, staff is immediately checking out
the book upon its arrival to the borrower before the borrower has
physical custody.  Reactions?

WBITOI (Way before I took over ILL- and before the turn of the century),
this -briefly- was the practice at my library.  It was a PR nightmare in
two ways: customers checking their records would find books they didn't
have on their record and would call to complain.  Books on their way to
branches would be mislaid by our internal courier and the customers said
never got the books. Or did they?  In any case, there was no way to
track it and the library ended up paying for a lot of books and it made
us look bad to our lenders.  It wasn't fair to the customers to put
books on their account that they physically didn't have and put the
library in an indefensible position.

You wrote:.....the director has ordered that staff check out the book
upon arrival on my individual account.  Without my knowledge or
permission.
For accountability.  Again, reactions?

YIKES!  Why pick on you? What happened that made the director feel you
were personally responsible for these ILL transactions? From a Human
Resources perspective, both this action and her actions in not informing
you of any changes are indefensible. Why not have an account for the
university? Better yet--Can a university-affiliated borrower get an
account at the library?   Could this possibly be the base library's
director's way of torpedoing the relationship between St Leo and the
base itself? The university should intervene on your behalf.  This
jeopardizes the base's and the university's shared mission.


Heather Campbell
Special Services ~ Interlibrary Loan and Books By Mail
Jacksonville Public Library
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
ill at coj.net    904-630-2985 


-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Steven Weaver
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 6:39 AM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Help please, your feedback requested


Good morning,

I work off-campus, represent my university as an associate librarian in
a military base library, and utilize that library's ILL system on behalf
of university clientele. In previous positions I fully administered my
colleges'
ILL systems but that was a few years ago.

In brief, here is the situation.  A few months ago the base library
director made several policy and procedural changes to the service.  She
did not notify me of these changes.  Her prerogative as director, I
suppose, but certainly not good form.

One of the policy changes involves checking out borrowed ILL books in
the library's circulation system.  My question for the group,
particularly those whose libraries also follow this practice: at what
point in the process is that book actually checked out?  In my past
experience it would have been when the borrower came into the library to
claim it.  In this case, however, staff is immediately checking out the
book upon its arrival to the borrower before the borrower has physical
custody.  Reactions?

Here is another twist.  In the event that a university-affiliated
borrower does not have an individual circulation account at the library,
the director has ordered that staff check out the book upon arrival on
my individual account.  Without my knowledge or permission.
For accountability.  Again, reactions?

I am doing some
fact-checking and peer opinion-gathering  in advance of a meeting
sometime next week to discuss these and related issues.

Thanks in advance for your feedback, I appreciate it.

Steven G. Weaver
Reference Librarian-Virginia Region
Saint Leo University
Email: steven.weaver at saintleo.edu


_______________________________________________
ILL-L mailing list
ILL-L at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/ill-l