Dear all,
I've been following the discussion on posting books to
readers & would like to add a few thoughts -
I would echo Neil's comments on libs taking a v hard
line (though understandable if BL hold them to account
over lost items the BL sends to readers) & about items
being no more likely to get lost than otherwise. I also
support comments about readers being responsible for
posting items back & about not letting ref items be out.
Although I'm not surprised at how little of this posting is
currently going on, I believe libs will change & do a lot
more posting - either in their ILL or distance learning
units or both. If this is the case then I think that libs
are going to find it incumbent upon themselves to acquire
postage insurance to cover losses when posting a book to a
reader - like compensation fee for theses.
The IFLA guidelines say that a requesting lib is
responsible for the item from when it is issued/posted to
them. A few comments on this discussion show that if libs
do post then they take the same line. But, while I believe
this is acceptable for libs, I don't think it fares so well
when we're talking about individuals. Even if a reader
agrees to a set of rules as a condition of being sent an
item, how are they going to feel when they have to pay
e.g. £70 for an item they haven't received? If we look at
internet shopping as a comparison then users wouldn't pay
for goods they'd never received - they'd claim back from
their credit cards or the supplier would post the item
again and claim through its own insurance. It seems to me
that such a model is one we should be following for ILL
i.e. insuring on postage.
I think that posting items to readers is going to be
something we'll be increasingly asked to do, will be
something we should do & actually will do. In such a world,
do people feel the IFLA ruling is equally valid for
individuals? Or given that the number of items lost on
posting to readers is likely to be v small, will libs be
content to supply by normal post & deal with each case on
its own merits?
Stephen
Stephen Prowse
Document Delivery Services Coordinator
King's College London
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