[Publib] Discontinuing Fax Service

[Judith Turner]

Hi, Michelle --

For certain types of documents - like health-care and various types of insurance claims and reports - faxing remains the only acceptable alternative (to slower services like 1st class mail, or very expensive ones like messenger services.)  I've been told by my insurance company that it's a combination of privacy concerns (HIPPA) and the lack of ability to pursue mail fraud if the sender/claimant is found to be falsifying data.  So I'd say it's still a necessary business machine.

Discontinuing a fax machine would be bucking a still-growing library trend. My local public library recently installed a public fax machine (or, if they had it all along, started advertising its availability.)

As far as people coming in just to use the fax and photocopier -- well, libraries have always offered a range of services from film series and children's story hours to ILL's that don't involve patrons taking items off the shelf and using them, so I don't see why this philosophy would not extend to faxing and photocopying.  

One additional concern -- unless the local economy in your area is booming, anything the library can do to make it easier for community residents to find jobs or make their $$$ go farther is likely to be greatly appreciated, even if a few business owners grumble about competition.  Employees often get to use company fax machines, sometimes for a modest fee, so they're not patronizing the UPS Store, Mailboxes 'n More, Kinko's, etc. From 2006-2008 I made near monthly trips to the UPS Store to fax 5 pages of information (at $1.00/page) to my insurance company and I mostly met senior citizens and student-aged clientele there.

  
Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI 

Blogging at: http://alms-jact.blogspot.com/
and
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"Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved." ---- "Silence in the Library"  (Doctor Who, Season 4, Ep. 8)  



--- On Wed, 9/2/09, Michelle Mears <mmears at enid.org> wrote:

> Sorry to be bugging you again. 
> But this is a time-sensitive question and I need some input
> before my Board meeting next week.
> 
> If any libraries have discontinued your public fax service,
> can you share the reasons why or your motivation for doing
> so?  I am leaning very heavily towards stopping it, but
> I want to be sure I'm not going too far out on a limb. 
> 
> Seems as if libraries started offering public fax service
> as a way to justify getting and using a fax machine for
> their own library business, particularly when so much of ILL
> was done over fax.  Like, hey let's do this and we can
> recoup some of the costs while we're at it (no library I
> know makes a profit at faxing).  But now I just see it
> as a strain on my already overloaded staff and sort of
> unfair competition with local businesses who charge a lot
> more.  And faxers (like copiers) often come in just to
> do this one thing and are not utilizing any other part of
> the library.
> 
> Is scanning and e-mailing replacing the old-fashioned fax,
> or is it still a necessary business machine?
> 
> Michelle
> -----
> Michelle R. Mears, MSLIS, PhD
> Library Director
> Public Library of Enid & Garfield County
> 120 W. Maine Ave.
> Enid, OK 73701-5606
> 580.234.6313 Phone
> 580.249.9280 Fax
> 620.506.8576 Mobile
> http://www.enid.org/library/