[ILL-L] Lost Book Invoice Advice

Sun Aug 16 09:15:00 EDT 2009

     If there is a chance that you returned it to a different library by accident, I would tell the lending library that you'd like to wait a month or two in order to see if another library returned it to you or to them. And I'd only pay for replacement costs, or see if they would take a replacement copy. We sent a book to the wrong library and they left it on the shelf because they were busy, and it came back a few months later. 
     We would do what others have said eventually: you are responsible for the book. If the book was still charged to your patron, then, no matter what they say, they didn't return it (check Circulation desks, stacks, book drops, etc.). You might negotiate the price a little with them, I guess. 
     On a general note, it's too bad that ILL offices are so busy that they often don't answer the phone. 

Ed Helmrich
Iona College

________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Robinson, Arthur 
Sent: Fri 8/14/2009 3:45 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Lost Book Invoice Advice

Is the $215 a replacement charge or an overdue fine?  If it's a replacement charge, it's probably legitimate (assuming the book is worth that much), but if it's an overdue charge after they delayed looking, I'd consider that unfair.

Patrons who claim they returned books are always a difficult problem, especially when the patron honestly believes s/he did so.  We had a faculty member who insisted she had returned a book, and even described the book; from the description I was pretty sure it was a different book that she had indeed returned, and not the missing book.  I suggested that she might want to look for the book with the title on the overdue notice, but she insisted she had returned it and wasn't going to look for it.  Luckily she eventually came across it, and returned it.

I also sympathize with difficulties dealing with other libraries.  (Warning:  Friday vent on the way--feel free to delete now.)  A while ago, we requested a book that never arrived at our library, and after I sent a "Not received" notice, we received an invoice.  I checked the lending library's online catalog, and saw it was listed as "On shelf" at their library.  This had happened twice before in similar cases with other libraries; in those cases, I had contacted the libraries who apologized and said yes, it was on the shelf, and must have been returned to them without reaching us.  So I e-mailed the library asking if they'd check to see if the book was on the shelf (acknowledging that it was also possible that they had sent the book to us without its having been checked out on their end, and it had been lost in the mail, in which case we would pay).  I got a reply saying the book was not on the shelf and had been checked out to us.  I checked their online catalog, and sure enough, it had been checked out since that morning; presumably they checked it out after receiving my e-mail--without having the book in hand.  Even though it's quite possible, if not probable, that the book was indeed lost in the mail, and we paid up, I wasn't happy.  How can you check out a book to another library when you don't have it in hand?  What if the book was in their library but had been misshelved? 

To end on a positive note:  for every lending library I get annoyed at, there are hundreds to which I am deeply grateful.

Have a good weeeknd!

Arthur Robinson (GLG)

________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of John A. Stephens
Sent: Fri 8/14/2009 2:37 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Lost Book Invoice Advice

No offense, but it seems that you're unreasonably faulting the lending library for what is, no matter how they responded to your inquiries, not their mistake.  Now, if you have some evidence that the book was in fact returned, or don't feel satisfied that they did a proper check before invoicing you then that's another thing, and it's not unreasonable to put the invoice on hold until you can actually get in contact with someone for confirmation.  Otherwise I don't see what reason you have to say you won't pay the invoice.  If you accept that the lending library is really missing the book, then either the patron is in error in saying that he returned the book, or your library was in error in handling the return, and the other library's lack of communication doesn't change the fact that you lost their book.  It's good that you're willing to go so far to make sure that no stone is unturned in searching for what might have happened to the book, but it seems to me that what you've done is taken your mistake and tried to turn it into theirs by presenting them with an unlikely scenario, asking them to disprove it, and they faulting them for not abiding by a rule that you created for them.  There's nothing wrong with any of the steps you took along the way, in fact it seems you worked quite diligently, but I can't see how concluding you don't have to pay the invoice follows from any of the facts you presented.

John Stephens
ILL Coordinator
Mercer University 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 1:22 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Re: [ILL-L] Lost Book Invoice Advice

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)

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