[ILL-L] Lost Book Invoice Advice

[Emma Beaven]

What I was asking for the lending library to do was to check the shelves 
in case we somehow missed discharging it from the customer's record and 
it was in fact returned to the lending library.  Had they responded with 
"No, it's not back on our shelves," I would have left the block on the 
customer's record and asked for an invoice.  If it did get by without 
being properly discharged or updated in OCLC, then I would have cleared 
the customer's record and updated the item to returned in OCLC.  There 
is always a chance that someone didn't do something properly at our end 
and the only way to verify that would be to contact the lending 
library.  We do also have occasional problems with our customers 
returning interlibrary loan materials to a library system nearby who 
then simply forwards the book back to the lending library without 
letting us know so that our records do not get updated.  Please let me 
know if you are still confused by my response.

Emma Beaven
Resource Sharing Supervisor
MILO
Enoch Pratt Free Library
400 Cathedral St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410)396-5498
(410)396-5837 (fax)


John A. Stephens wrote:
> I'm not quite sure how to interpret what you're saying.  We all do things differently, but you're saying that you borrowed an ILL book for a patron, but couldn't tell if he returned it, so you asked the lending library to search for it?  I feel that I must be missing something here.  It seems that your saying that you can't tell or have any way to tell if anything happened to the book after you gave it to the patron.  It would be nice for the lending library to be more responsive, but I'm not sure how talking to them would have anything to do with your patron's record in your system.  Is it possible at your library for a patron to return the book, have it processed and sent back to the lending library, and for you not to have any record of it, so the only thing to do is ask the lending library?  I'm confused.  
>
> John Stephens
> ILL Coordinator
> Mercer Universty Atlanta (GMA/GAUMUD)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Emma Beaven
> Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 12:20 PM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: [ILL-L] Lost Book Invoice Advice
>
> Hi everyone,
>   I've run into a problem with a lost book and I'm wondering if anyone 
> can give me any advice.  On 7/9/09, we had a customer with an 
> interlibrary loan book checked out to him which he claimed to have 
> returned.  His record was accumulating fines because of this and he was 
> blocked from checking out any materials.  On 7/10 one of my staff 
> members attempted to call the library and left a voicemail.  He tried to 
> get in touch by phone again on 7/13/09 and still the phone went to 
> voicemail.  He sent an email out on 7/13 to no avail.  On 7/14 he 
> attempted to contact this library both via fax and Ariel.  On 7/15 I had 
> him google the library and call its circulation desk where someone 
> answered the phone.  Someone from the circulation desk checked to make 
> sure someone was in ILL and sent the call back to her.  She said that 
> yes she had received the phone calls but had not responded and that it 
> would take her at least a week from that day (7/15) to search for the 
> book.  She never called back.  Since our customer was blocked from 
> borrowing and this ILL department was pretty much unresponsive, I 
> removed the book and and fines from the patrons record and let it go.  
> Today I received an invoice for $215.00 dated 8/10/09.  To me it is 
> completely unreasonable to have to wait a month for a shelf check,  all 
> the while keeping our patron blocked from checkout.  Please let me know 
> if you think we're within our rights to refuse to pay this invoice 
> because this library refused to communicate with us in a timely manner.  
> Just a note, on the invoice is written in bod "Thank you for your prompt 
> attention to this matter."
>
> Thanks for your advice,
>
>   
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Scanned MGW2


-- 
Emma Beaven
Resource Sharing Supervisor
MILO
Enoch Pratt Free Library
400 Cathedral St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410)396-5498
(410)396-5837 (fax)