Hi

Apologies for the delay in sending this summary of the responses
to my request for help regarding interlibrary loans. I received
personal emails from 16 universities with additional information
coming from the websites of a further 10 universities. I’ve included
our own situation in the results giving a total of 27 responses. Not
all questions got responses from all universities. Many thanks to
those who gave their time to help.

Regards,

Hilary
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Question 1: Do you charge users for ILL requests?
19 universities charge, some charge individuals directly, some
recharge departments.
The amounts charged ranged between a ‘nominal’ 10p per item to
£3.50 per item. Most institutions seem to charge a flat £1 with
some increasing costs for theses, worldwide searches etc. Only
one institution charges by the page. Some institutions combine
limits with charges, for example £1 per item for the first 5 items,
then £5 for each subsequent item.
8 don’t charge.

Question 2: If you do charge, do you charge staff and
students equally?
Question 3: Do you make distinctions between different
groups of students eg. undergrads & postgrads?
Of those who charge the majority make some distinction between
their different user groups, whether this is between staff and
students, or between different groups of students.
11 institutions said they charged staff and students the same
amount but in some cases the staff then claimed the expense from
their departments.
The most common distinctions were in setting limits rather than in
setting prices. The usual distinction is between undergraduates
and taught postgraduates on the one hand and research
postgraduates and staff on the other.

Question 4: Do you impose limits?
Question 5: If you do impose limits - what are they and what
time period do you use?
There was enormous variety in the limits set. It is common to set
different limits for different groups of students. The range is
between 25 and 120 per annum for staff and researchers, 12
requests at a time, 5 per week to 5 per year for undergraduates.
Some libraries reported informal limits, sometimes dependant on
budget levels.

Question 6: Have you found other methods of coping with the
growth of ILLs?
Question 7: Have you investigated this matter and decided to
leave your policies unchanged?
Question 8: Any other comments, advice?
There seems to be a general view that an increase in electronic full
text resources leads to a decrease in the demand for ILLs.
However a couple of institutions reported no decrease at all. A
couple of libraries introduced (or increased) charges as a way of
reducing demand – a 50% fall was reported by one. One library
was concerned that introducing charges would actually stimulate
demand. Generally the feeling was of a potential problem being
carefully watched.

Again, many thanks to those who responded and to Bev Mason,
then of Chippenham, whose questions these are.


H. Cummings
Campus Library and Information Manager
Middlesex University Business School
The Burroughs
Hendon
NW4 4BT
UK
+44 (0)20 8411 5851
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