[ILL-L] borrowing books for college classes

[Susan Morris]

Hi Lisa,

We, like many other academic ILL departments, are plagued at the beginning of every semester by requests for textbooks. We sympathize with students concerning the rising costs of textbooks and we truly are not just trying to be mean or keep anybody from getting their degree, but we, and a good number of other ILL departments, specifically list in our local policies page for our own users why ILL is not a substitute for students' obtaining textbooks). To get you started, among the various reasons:

1)Most libraries do not include textbooks as part of their collection development policies. Therefore it can be extremely difficult to locate a library that owns any edition of the needed title (much less the exact edition being used in any given semester). Even finally locating and borrowing the wrong edition could take well into the term, if we are lucky. 

2) Most lending units have a relatively short loan period--even if renewals are granted. Most do not have a "whole semester" or "whole year" loan period (which is what these users often expect. We had someone hold onto a borrowed book unbeknownst to us as being used in a class till it was so overdue we were rightly billed from the lending institution for the book--which was considerably higher than the price of the textbook from a bookstore-- factoring in fines, replacement processing fees etc.) 

3) A borrowing library may be charged a loan fee (if they can locate a lender). At our institution, we are undergoing budget cuts and furloughs--when we are looking at cutting out databases and journal subscriptions--which are obtained for the good of all, we cannot justify spending hundreds or thousands of dollars in loan fees so that some students won't have to pay any money for their textbooks.

The three above reasons don't stop people from asking--but we have to stand firm. Also, in our state the HOPE scholarship, available to students who maintain a 3.0 gpa has a $150 book allowance--again, I know that it only goes so far covering the price of textbooks--but it's better than nothing.

One other observation, based on an experience we had last spring: We cannot ask another library to copy chapter one this week, chapter two in a couple of weeks, chapter three a week or so later etc. etc.(even thouogh we provide free copies to our users, there is a little thing called COPYRIGHT that plays into this scheme)....

Hope this helps,
Susan Morris
ILL/GUA
University of Georgia Libraries
Athens, GA  30602


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lowman, Lisa 
  To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 11:10 AM
  Subject: [ILL-L] borrowing books for college classes


  Good Morning All:

   

  I just had a patron come to me inquiring about ordering books through ILL for her son who is in college(10) books in all.  I do remember sometime ago, an email discussion on this topic, but do not remember what the final response was.  Of course, I did tell her about the use Barnes and Noble book store in NY on 18 & 5th and the strand book store too.  I don't think we do this because it is not medical or related to the job so I need your help so that I can respond to her properly and forward her on to the next resource.  

   

  Thank you as always my back-up!                                                                                              

   

  Lisa Lowman-Sheppard

  Library Technician

  Medical Library 3-142D

  VA New Jersey Healthcare System

  385 Tremont Avenue

  East Orange, New Jersey 07018

  973-676-1000x11969

  Email: lisa.lowman at va.gov

   



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