[ILL-L] Replacement fees

[SHORT Rachael]

Here is our policy on lost books: 
Failure to return an Interlibrary Loan will result in a minimum charge
of $50.00 to your card. Any additional charges are determined by the
owning library.

After years of posting a default fee, then doing acrobatics to try to
make it clear that the fee may be more or less, making revisions and
refunds, I realized that the harm to our relationship with the lender
and the amount of time I spend trying to get the item returned justifies
that $50 fee, even if it is much more than the book would cost in a
store, and that if the lending library's invoice is for more than $50
that charge should of course be added.

Rachael Short
Multnomah County Library
Portland, Oregon
rachaels at multcolib.org

-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Chappell, Cyndi, JCL
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:24 AM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Replacement fees


Hi all,

Currently, our public library system charges our patrons a default fee
when the ILL item they borrowed changes to a lost status.  We try to
call the lending library before the status changes to lost, so we can
get the actual replacement fee and bill the patron for that amount.  How
do you handle billing patrons for lost ILL items?  Do you just apply a
default amount, figuring that it will all even out over time, more or
less, or do you always contact the lending library to get the actual
amount you'll be billed for the lost item?

Thanks,

Cyndi Chappell

Resource Sharing Services Coordinator
Johnson County Library


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