[ILL-L] RE: Problem Libraries

[Campbell, Heather]

You are well within your rights to block this library.  Is there
anything you're not telling us?  Is this a library within your
consortium or network? If so-  there may be steps you need to take
according to your consortium/network agreement.  Would you ever borrow
from them?  That is, would blocking them, in your view, ever affect your
ability to fill your customers' requests? If the answer is no, you need
to let them know.  By all means, let  your supervisor and/or
Administration know so they can have the facts at hand in case there are
calls from the blocked library.  If you (or the higher ups) decide you
don't want to block them, you may want to consider only filling
photocopy requests from the library.
 
I understand your frustration.  My staff and I deal with libraries in
our local and state networks that abuse the resource sharing
arrangement. We would have to have a super solid case for blocking them
because of signed agreements.  There are certain libraries we no longer
lend urban fiction to. They either don't return books in this genre or
return them months after the due date too damaged to put back on the
shelf and say that "it was that way when we got it".  I'm hoping that
the state courier service that pays for these supposed 'damaged in
delivery' claims, starts tracking the serial offenders and calling them
on it.
 
Good luck.  Let us know how it pans out.
 

Heather Campbell
Special Services ~ Interlibrary Loan and Books By Mail
Jacksonville Public Library   303 North Laura Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
heatherc at coj.net    904-630-2985 

 


________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Inter Library Loan
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 2:32 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Problem Libraries


Colleagues,
 
I'm wondering what I can do about a particular library that constantly
gives me trouble.  The books I lend to this library are literally always
returned late, and because I am a one-woman operation, this can really
take a bite out of my already-swamped workweek, what with multiple late
notices, billing, calling, emailing, etc.  I have suspended their
borrowing privileges with us 3 times in the last year for books more
than 2 months overdue, but this doesn't seem to prevent future abuses.
It's like pulling teeth to get anyone to respond to my messages.  When
books are finally returned, they are often damaged, with no explaination
-- pages torn out, water stains, etc.  I foolishly lent them a book that
was more than 100 years old, with a message imploring them to return it
in a box, well packaged, which is how I shipped it out.  It can back
(late, of course) in a ripped-up envelope, severely damaged, even though
my note about packaging was still pinned onto the bookstrap!  We had to
remove the book from circulation.
 
I'm wondering what recourse I might have against this library.  Can I
simply stop lending to them at all?  I don't ever borrow from them.
 
At the end of my rope,
 
Ms. Laura Perleberg
Fogelson Library
College of Santa Fe
Support Specialist ~ Interlibrary Loan
lperleberg at csf.edu
(505) 473-
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