[Publib] Book leasing plans - compilation of responses

[Rachael Vilmar]

Hello,

Here are the responses I received to my book leasing query. Thanks to all who responded. 

  Dear Ms. Vilmar,
   
      I am responding to your PUBLIB posting regarding leasing plans.
        We used Brodart's McNaughton plan when I arrived here in 2004.  I never really understood the plan and it seemed to be working well.  We received the titles very quickly and they came with MARC records.  
        However, when we started to examine the costs involved with their "point" system, we realized that we were paying almost 4 times the cost of the item.  So, we budgeted the same amount of money with Baker and Taylor and added many of these popular authors to their Automatically Yours Plan (e.g. Steel, Grisham, Evanovich, etc.).  We were able to purchase more titles for our money.  Plus, we give the extras to our Friends of the Library to sell at their book sale.  
   
      So, I think the real benefit of the leasing plans is that they are easy:
            a.    simple ordering
            b.    send extras back with postage paid and get "points" credited
            c.    MARC records, etc.
   
      If you have any questions or need more information, please let me know.
        Thanks.
  Sincerely, 
  Clint S. Rudy 
  Churchland Branch Manager 
 Portsmouth Public Library 
 3215 Academy Avenue 
 Portsmouth VA 23703 
 757-686-2538 
   
  Every library in which I have worked has used the McNaughton plan from Brodart.  At my last library it was used as kind of an additional book budget.  At the present one, we use it mainly for additional copies of very popular books.  That way we can return the extra copies when the popularity has died down.  Here the Friends group pays for the McNaughton plan and we have a much smaller plan that at my last library.  Occasionally we will have built up a lot of unused selection choices  so I use them on books with a limited lifespan (political books, the latest celebrity tell-all, that kind of thing).  Over all I have been happy with the plan.  They are easy to work with and if I suddenly discover we have 10 holds on a book and I’ve used all my points this month, I can still call and they will ship me the book and take the points off my next month’s allotment.
  

  Hope this helps.  If you have any other questions, I’ll be happy to try to answer them.
    Ann Brown
  Director
  Duncan Public Library
  Duncan, OK


  Rachel, we just recently signed up for the Baker & Taylor plan (we're now on our second month).  The book selection seems to be pretty good, and the price wasn't too bad, but the sign up process itself was frankly horrible.  I used to be a university financial aid counselor, and I've had less trouble getting students who didn't speak any English through the federal aid process than I had signing our library up for that plan.  It took myself and my library director about three hours just to fill out the forms, and then it took more than three weeks for B&T to process them.  We also had some concerns when the forms asked us multiple times how many sets of catalog cards we wanted, and then grudgingly if we wanted our MARC records on 3 1/2 or 5 1/4 inch floppies.  There is an option to download them, but be prepared for a website signup that's just as aggravating; after signing up you have to wait two or three days for their computer people to activate your account.  I
 haven't actually tried downloading from them yet because by that time we'd already found records from other sources, but I'm sure it will be another fun experience to look forward to next month.  On the whole I'm optimistic that it will go more smoothly now that we're through the initial sign up, but up to now it's been fairly unpleasant.
   
  Hope this helps!
  Kendra Abel
  Technical Assistant
  Larson Memorial Public Library
  Lakeside, AZ
   
  Hi Rachel, 
 
 We've been leasing books through McNaughton (part of Brodart) for about a year now and it's a mixed bag. 
 
 When a bestseller shows up three days before the street date we love it. The item can be used to create a record in the database so we can start collecting holds ASAP. 
 
 When we get two copies of Woody Allen's latest book shows up (he doesn't do well out here on the western slope of the Rockies) we're less than pleased. 
 
 So far we've tried two different plans with McN and we're hoping that this latest one (number three) will work for us. To be fair, when we dove into this concept we were new to it (read as green as grass) and maybe we didn't understand or make the best choices. 
 
 I think we're going to stick with it at least another six months and see if we can get it to do what we want - extra copies of those bestsellers to fill all of the holds list and then send those books back once the demand has passed. 
 
 Please let me know if you have any questions I can help with. 
 
 Penny 
 
 
 
 Technical Services Manager 
 Garfield County Libraries 
 P.O. Box 832 
 796 Megan Way 
 Rifle CO 
 ph. 970-625-4270 
 fax 970-625-4472
   
  We currently use Brodart for booking leasing to suppliment our collection for both Adult and YAs.  The YAs are going over very well and the kids (especially the girls) go through them quickly!  The adult one is useful and allows us to have on hand mutiple copies of bestsellers  without purchasing them.  Once they aren't so popular, back they go.  We also use it a lot to fill in for books about this month's latest and greatest diet or exercise craze.
   
  Helen Rigdon
  Coffeyville Public Library
   
   
   
  

       
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