[ILL-L] OVERDUE BOOKS

[Document Delivery]

Loans should be resolved at the six month level, I've read, and after a
year the bills should be paid, or books replaced, etc. An invoice to the
library director would be fitting, I think, but it's also possible to
just end that institution's borrowing privileges. That's the usual
route.

Many people are over worked and understaffed, but that's what you have
to do. That's what we were threatened with when we couldn't get a book
back, and we did the best we could.

Edward Helmrich 
ILL Office 
Ryan Library 
Iona College VXI 
914-633-2352 
docdelivery at iona.edu 


-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Breedlove, W Stephen
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 4:12 PM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] OVERDUE BOOKS


Dear List,

>From my experience for the last few years, there appears to be an
epidemic of overdue books in interlibrary loan land--not just a couple
of weeks overdue--but months and years overdue.  After a recall in OCLC,
an email reminder, an invoice, then another invoice after a few months,
and maybe another invoice in another few months--and still no book or
check for replacement charges--What is the next best approach?  (We will
accept a brand new copy of the book in lieue of payment of an invoice.)
Several libraries have books borrowed from us that are two or more years
overdue.  Keep in mind that these initial invoices have been sent to the
person in charge to whom I have been instructed that invoices be sent.
Should I send another iinvoice to the director of the library and hope
this gets some results?  Wishful thinking?  We have stopped lending to a
few of these offending libraries.  But what does it take to get a
response?  

Currently, we have approximately 40 books that are overdue for three
months to several years.  This seems a lot to me, but I have no idea how
this compares to other libraries' overdue load.  We have been a very
large net lender for years, but because of budget restrictions we have
drastically cut back on our lending in order to reduce shipping costs.
Not lending to the big offending libraries gives us one criterion to use
to reduce costs.

How do you get libraries to pay your invoices for replacement costs if
they cannot return the books?  It seems unethical to just let it go.
>From our end we try to return books on time.  If we cannot return the
book, we pay the lending library's invoice.

Any thoughts on this?

W. Stephen Breedlove, MLS, MA
Reference Lbirarian/Interlibrary Loan Coordinator
La Salle Universty Library
breedlov at lasalle.edu
215-951-1862


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