[ILL-L] The Case of the Missing Books

[Robinson, Arthur]

Has anyone else experienced an increase in books requested from other
libraries and supposedly shipped but "Not Received"?

We're a small library, and this usually happens to us only two or three
times a year; in fact in 2008 it only happened once.  But it's happened
to us four times already this year, even though our ILL borrowing is
down about 30% from last year.

I've been formulating various paranoid theories (decline in USPS
service? Something to do with the economy? Books abducted by aliens on
the grassy knoll?).

It might have been worse.  We have also had an increase this year in
cases where packages arrived ripped with books spilling out but still
present (including one case where a large, fat book was shipped in a
manila envelope).

Arthur Robinson (GLG)