[ILL-L] Thank You Notes

Fri Nov 6 09:14:07 EST 2009

Agreed! I know I've mentioned this before.  We display our thank you
notes in our department for the following reasons: 

*         Filling lending requests is a group effort at JPL Main.  The
notes show our non-ILL staff that their work is appreciated and shows
them how far our items travel. I tend to think of us more as the travel
agency for our books than ILL.

*         Given the workload, the ILL staff doesn't get a lot of
positive feedback.  Customers picking up items at Circ express their
appreciation to the staff there.  Staff taking requests at service desks
get the kudos from customers.  We don't hear it.  It's very rare that we
get a thank you from another library's customer.  It helps the ILL staff
morale to get these.

*         Interactions with other libraries are often about overdue
notices and aren't always positive on the part of the borrowing
library-along the lines of "How dare you ask for your books back!". My
staff is aware that borrowers are also lenders and swallow replies in
kind instead of saying them. The displayed thank you's also help morale
when this happens.

*         Some of the thank you notes are really clever and some are
really eye-popping and we get a chuckle or a "wow" response now and
then.  Who couldn't use that?

*         When supervisors or Admin come into our department- they can
see the positive effect of ILL which offsets what it costs. A reporter
who came into the area wrote that our area "reeks of satisfaction and
appreciation." (I have air freshener on hand in case the "reek" gets out
of hand.)

As for those who don't want the thank you notes- my part-time staffer
automatically puts them in all returns. We have a little less than a
bagazillion of them (which irks our staff artist because he's itching to
do a new one)in stock. I'm sorry if the attitude of gratitude offends.

Heather Campbell, Senior Librarian

Manager- Interlibrary Loan 

Jacksonville Public Library (JPL)

303 North Laura Street

Jacksonville, FL 32202-3505 heatherc at coj.net  (904) 630-2986

-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of ILL_PSC ILL_PSC
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:09 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Re: [ILL-L] Thank You Notes

I think it's sad that people are being criticized for having good
manners and attempting to say "thank you." Mass produced or
individualized -- it's the thought that counts. And mass produced takes
thought, time, effort, and MONEY. Less than an individualized "thank
you", but more than none. Being ungracious about it is rude. 

If you really, really, really don't like getting "thank you" notes, then
put a note on your ILL book sleeve/label: No thank you necessary. 

I don't know why people find these little slips such a hassle. Every
time I unpack a returned book, I've got to take off my ILL book band and
dispose of it. How much extra time does it take to fan the book and
throw away the slips?  Not much more than a second or two. I do it
anyway because of stuff patrons leave in books.

As for saving trees, many of these thank you slips are quarter pages;
some are even smaller. That means that it only takes half a ream of
paper to print 1,000 "thank you" notes. My library's students abandon a
half a ream's worth of printouts in a week. I gather up their abandoned
printouts and recycle them by printing out my ILLs and articles on the
back of these discarded pages. I save about five reams of paper a year
-- nine times more than a half a ream of "thank you" slips.

I like "thank you" notes/stickers/stamps. I like reading them or
admiring the designs. They make me feel good about lending and about the
libraries I lend to. And when items are overdue and I've had to contact
the library multiple times, they make me feel much more forgiving. I
like knowing there is real person who appreciates my efforts --
especially as my patrons today are more demanding because everything is
electronic (yeah, right!) and expecting everything tomorrow (who needs
sick leave or time off on weekends?). They are also saying thank you a
lot less often than before.

I like putting my "thank you" stickers on each item I return. I'm going
to continue doing so as long as lenders keep putting book sleeves/labels
on the items they lend.

JMO,

Linda

Linda Celet Bane

Interlibrary Loan (PWS/PWSA)

Mary F. Shipper Library/LRC

Potomac State College of WVU

Keyser, WV  26726-2697

phone: (304)788-6903

fax: (304)788-6946

Ariel: 157.182.165.30, PSC_Ariel at mail.wvu.edu

E-mail: ILL_PSC at mail.wvu.edu

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