1) Patron says he/she has lost the book (or, you haven't heard from the patron after 365 phone calls and 465 reminder cards, not to mention 47 bills sent to patron's address). What do you do?
You:
| a. Call the police (if patron has books/videos out worth more than $500, and you can prove it with the ILL bills, this is a viable option. This is theft). |
| b. Go pound on patron's door. This is an option only if you are not afraid of hostility/sore hands. |
| c. Write off the patron, make sure his/her card can never be used again, and pay the ILL bills. The option preferred by most libraries and your ILL coordinator, except it is expensive. See option a) if it's very expensive. |
| d. Swear you'll never borrow another book ILL. Not a preferred option. Slight overreaction to the circumstances. Consider how many items you borrow ILL, and how many you have to pay for. If it's as much as 1%, you are very unlucky. |
| e. Make new patrons swear out a bond/leave a deposit/give you their Visa card number and expiration date, before letting them have an expensive ILL. This is an option, but it will make you very unpopular. Customers will flock to the more trusting library in the next town. |
| f. Ignore the problem and hope it will go away. I'm afraid not. Eventually, Mid-York will cut you off from ILL services, until you pay the bill or replace the item (some libraries don't want a new copy. They will usually mention on the bill if they will accept a replacement). |
2) Statistics are driving me crazy. WHAT figures do I have to keep, and how do I keep them?
| a. See the Statistics page. |
| b. It's up to you. As in a., if you are automated, the only figures you must keep are your reference questions, and the number of photocopied articles you actually send and receive, within the system (the ILL Dept. counts your photocopies requested from outside the system). If you aren't automated, you should keep all the figures requested on the pink Intralibrary Loan Statistics sheet. That's how the state knows how you are doing. Every library has a different method of counting these things. Be ingenious. |
3) My customer wants to keep the book longer. Can books from outside the system be renewed? How?
| a. Call or email the Mid-York ILL Dept. (do not call the loaning library!) and ask for a renewal. Almost all ILL books can be renewed, once. ILL will ask the loaning library, usually electronically, for the renewal. ILL will let you know the new due date, or if the book must be returned. |
| b. Books that are substantially (more than 2 weeks) overdue, cannot be renewed. Customer has basically already had their extension! |
| c. Some libraries have a non-renewal policy (ex.: Syracuse University never allows renewals). In this case patron must return the item, and you can ask that we borrow it from a different location. |
| a. You are a library, therefore you may get an interlibrary loan request directly. It's up to you whether to loan or not. |
| b. If you own the book, and want to loan it ILL, call the Mid-York ILL Dept. and ask for the code to LL the book. That way the computer will give you the credit for the loan, and you will know what agency has it. If the request came to you on an ALA form, keep one copy of the form also, so you will know exactly where it is. If the request came to you on any other paper, keep a copy of the paper. If the request came by phone, ask the borrowing library to send a paper confirmation before you send the book. The confirmation can be a FAX, if you both have a FAX machine. |
| c. If you no longer own the book, but it's at another library in the system, save yourself time and forward the request to the Mid-York ILL Dept. |
| d. If no library in the system owns the book, write a note on the request (NO LONGER OWNED is good) and return the request to the borrowing library, as a courtesy. ILL's wheels are greased by courtesy. |
| e. If you're the only one in the system who owns the book, and you don't want to lend it outside the system (maybe because it's rare), just say so on the request, and return the request to the borrowing library. |
Other questions? Let the ILL Department know! Your puzzlement is probably shared by others.