[ILL-L] Problem? faculty who turn it large number of requests and ask for copying services

[Brannan, Joyce]

We had one professor teaching children's literature that would request EVERY new children's book published.  At the beginning of each semester, he would request about 200 at once, and then more as the semester progressed.  We  let him.   Fortunately, he is no longer with us.  :)  No one else has ever been anywhere near so  outrageous.

Many professors, students, and general public seem to think that we should provide copying services.  If anyone requests a copy  made of something we own, we tell them where it is and let them get  it themselves.  We do not provide an override key, they are expected to have a department copy card and use it to make copies.

We   had one church group that we occasionally would help make copies of things that they would bring in - they paid for the copies, but not the service.  One very busy Saturday morning when I was here  by myself, a woman brought in a box of different items and a list of how many copies of each she would need.  She told me she would be back in 2 hours.  I explained that was not a service we provided, that we had just been doing the church a favor, I was too swamped with helping students to do it for her, and if she really wanted it that day, I would sell her a card and show her how to do it herself.  She left, and no one from that church has been back.


Joyce A. Brannan
Technical Services Librarian
Julia Tutwiler Library
University of West Alabama
Livingston, AL 35470
205.652.3677
jbrannan at uwa.edu



From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Robinson, Arthur
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 10:56 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Problem? faculty who turn it large number of requests and ask for copying services

At GLG, we transmit a limit of 10 requests per patron per week; a faculty member can hand in more, but is asked to prioritize if any are needed quickly.  One of our professors inspired this limit; he submitted 126 requests at a time, and later 66 at a time.  If he submits 126 requests now, he'll have to wait 13 weeks.

We don't copy for faculty--we have a photocopier they can use and charge the copying to their department, but we won't do it for them, except in special circumstances, such as medical problems.  I have also made copies for a 91-year-old patron--I was concerned at first about charges of special treatment, but then I decided we could make it a policy that we'd do copying for all patrons over 90 years old.

Of course, some patrons expect copying services.  I think I've already mentioned that when the professor referred to above submitted 66 requests, 32 turned out to be in our library; I pulled the bound volumes for him and marked the pages, but that wasn't enough, he wanted me to do all the copying, at the library's expense.  Another professor ordered a 1692 book on microfilm and wanted me to print it out for her--all 312 pages of it.

Arthur Robinson (GLG)

________________________________
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Sears, Patsy
Sent: Mon 2/9/2009 11:11 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: [ILL-L] Problem? faculty who turn it large number of requests and ask for copying services


________________________________

Do any of you have a policy about the number of requests a faculty member can turn in at once and whether they should expect copying services from library staff?





Thanks for any tips.





Patsy Sears

University of Montevallo

Alabama



searsp at montevallo.edu<mailto:searsp at montevallo.edu>




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