[ILL-L] Limit to number of books a student can take out?

Fri Feb 6 12:41:26 EST 2009

I agree with your reasoning.  It isn't really a question of the workload.   A lot 
of patrons don't understand that they are only going to have  limited amount 
of time to use the books.  Even if a lender is generous and allows an 8 week 
checkout period, at least two of those weeks are going to be taken up with 
mailing time.   Ten books is a substantial amount to read in six weeks.  If 
they are only getting a small amount of information from the books, and not 
actually reading them all the way through, they can return the ILL's and 
request more.  It just prevents a lot of problems.

On 6 Feb 2009 at 12:04, Document Delivery wrote:

> 
> I asked the question and my concern is having a student with 20 books he or she is responsible 
> for. The workload is substantial, but that´s OK. How many books can be read at once? I asked 
> them to bring in the assignment to explain why they needed more than ten at one time, but no 
> one has come in, and the professor hasn´t complained about the policy.
> 
> Edward Helmrich 
> ILL Office 
> Ryan Library 
> Iona College VXI 
> 914-633-2352 
> docdelivery at iona.edu 
> 
> 
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of April 
> Younglove
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 11:27 AM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Limit to number of books a student can take out?
> 
> 
> 
> I have to agree that it seems more reasonable for a public library to have a limit on ILL borrowing 
> for the reasons Heather states below. For academic libraries, however, I´m not sure that I see 
> the reasoning for limiting your patrons (especially since, recently being a graduate student 
> myself, I frequently ordered and used more than 10 ILL books at a time). Is the problem for the 
> original question poster that you are understaffed? Or is it that patrons are not picking up items 
> that they are ordering? If that latter, then I think that applying a fee for items not picked up 
> seems like one less drastic solution than limiting. From a student´s point of view, it would be 
> hard for me to always keep track of whether or not I was ordering "too many" items and I might 
> just stop using ILL or assume that you don´t want me to use it very much (and I hope that´s not 
> true). 
> 
> April Younglove 
> Technical Services Specialist
> Linfield College, Portland Campus Library
> 503-413-7448
> ayoungl at linfield.edu
> 
> 
> 
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of 
> Campbell, Heather
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 4:43 AM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Limit to number of books a student can take out?
> 
> 
> I know that as a public library, we may be speaking of apples and oranges here 
> (as a Floridian, I insist on being the orange)--BUT we oranges found that our 
> customers have the free-for-all candy shop reaction to WorldCat. They want it 
> all, but they don't have the time to read everything they request or even the 
> inclination to check everything out.It would drive Circ staff-especially at our 
> branches- (ummm)bananas. Customers would stand at the check-out desk and 
> pick and choose what they wanted tocheck out---- as the linebehind them grew 
> ever larger and angrier. A lot of books were sent back unread- only (in some 
> cases) to be requested again. Since ILL is notfree, alot of time and resources 
> were wasted. I did a survey and 10 was the median number most public libraries 
> chose as an activerequest limit.Our Library Board approved the policy change. 
> ILLiad canenforce the limit for you, soI set10 as the limit when we went live 
> with Borrowing. We have had atwo or threeof complaints over the 5 years 
> we've had this limit, but my staff has been grateful for the limits since Borrowing 
> is the most labor intensive part of the ILL process. It helps morale to know that 
> all your work won't go for nought.
> 
> 
> 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.net904-630-7017 VM:904-630-2985
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of 
> Document Delivery
> Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 5:05 PM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: [ILL-L] Limit to number of books a student can take out?
> We have a class where some students are requesting 15-20 books interlibrary loan. We have a 
> policy of no more than ten ILL books charged out to a patron at a time. Do other libraries have 
> similar policies or thoughts? Thanks,
> 
> Edward Helmrich 
> ILL Office 
> Ryan Library 
> Iona College VXI 
> 914-633-2352 
> docdelivery at iona.edu 
> 
> 
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of 
> Becky Grinolds
> Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 12:27 PM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Re: Friday musings
> 
> 
> 
> When their items arrived, we send an email letting them know that it is here and that we will hold 
> it for 10 days. On the 11th day we send the item back or recycle the articles. If there are charges 
> from the lending libraries they are put onto the patrons account.Otherwise we don´t charge.
> 
> Becky Grinolds
> Lewis Clark State College
> Lewiston, ID
> 
> 
> 
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of 
> Shirley R Thomas/FS/VCU
> Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 9:07 AM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: Re: [ILL-L] Re: Friday musings
> 
> 
> 
> I'm interested in knowing whether other libraries have a $2 fines for items not picked up.  
> 
> We are considering doing this because we have over 30 returnables each month that never get 
> picked up. We also have just as many or more electronically delivered articles that the users 
> never read. 
> 
> 
> Shirley R. Thomas
> Head, Resource Delivery Services
> VCU Libraries
> 901 Park Avenue
> Richmond, VA 23284-2033
> Fax: 804-828-2260
> Voice: 804-828-1706
> https://illiad.library.vcu.edu/illiad/ 
> Sarah Lee <slee at mplonline.org> 
> Sent by: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org 
> 02/02/2009 10:40 AM 
>                          Please respond to
>          Interlibrary Loan Listserv <ill-l at webjunction.org>
> 
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>                                                              Subject
> [ILL-L] Re: Friday musings
> 
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> 
> Last year we instituted a $2 postage/handling charge for ILL's received 
> and
> a $2     additional fine for items not picked up. It worked 
> wonders! 
> 
> 
> 
> Sarah L. Lee         
> Technical Services Mgr.                
> Mobile Public Library                
> 5555 Grelot Rd.                        
> Mobile AL 36609
> http://www.mplonline.org
>         
> e-mail slee at mplonline.org
> ph. 251-340-8590         
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Sharon Bleau
Reference Librarian
Mountain State University