[ILL-L] OVERDUE BOOKS

[Campbell, Heather]

 You wrote: Should I send another iinvoice to the director of the
library and hope this gets some results?  Wishful thinking?  
I'd try it but don't be too surprised by the response you get.  I cc'd
the director of a defaulting library on one of our ILLiad invoice
e-mails for a book that was returned very overdue and damaged.   THEN
and ONLY THEN did the ILL staffer claim blamed our statewide courier for
the damage after we'd been sending invoices for nearly a year.  It got
results but the ILL staffer in question was very defensive and offensive
about the whole matter (as in: "How DARE you send this to my director!")
seeming to blame us for the book's condition and the staffer's surgery
earlier in the year.  It did get us a response when nothing else did.
We're careful about what we send this library; they are on probation.
It's unfortunate; the director would have been wise to have requested
she be cc-ed on the staffer's response to us.


Heather Campbell
Special Services ~ Interlibrary Loan and Books By Mail
Jacksonville Public Library (OCLC:JPL)                    303 North
Laura Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
heatherc at coj.net  904-630-7017  VM:904-630-2985


-----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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