My thanks to all of you who replied to my interlibrary loan charging query. I had 22 (non 'out of the office') responses:
Do you charge for interlibrary loans?
This question elicited the response that the Copyright Act requires charges to be made, nonetheless one library allows dissertation students 10 free requests and postgrads & researchers 15 and then charges £10.80 for extra requests; a few allow researchers and staff free requests. Of the others the charges, where given, range from 50p to the full BL or lending library charge (2 libraries). £1 was mentioned by 4 respondants. Two libraries mentioned allowing visitors to request ILLs and charge £7.50 and £8.50 respectively.
One library mentioned charging for renewals at £2.50; another asks how this can be applied?
Two libraries noted that the charge was on collection one that it was upfront and non-refundable (which is the same as my library). One library noted that it refunds if unable to get the request.
Do you charge all readers the same?
equally balanced between yes and no. Most vary between the undergraduates and masters as one group and staff/doctoral/researchers as the other. Most charge less to the second group.
Do you charge the requestor or the school/department?
A variety of responses:
over the set limit they go to their faculty ILL rep who issues ILL at their discretion - the faculty is then charged for the ILL.
School - each has an allocation topsliced from the acquisitions budget.
The library sells the form and staff and postgraduates can bring in a form to have funds transferred.
The requestor pays but the library also sells vouchers to the departments to give to students if they want; also give receipts if needed and some departments refund.
Undergraduates and masters themselves; academic staff, PhD/MPhil charged to departments
If you charge the school do requests have to be validated first?
Most said no but the school decides in a couple of cases. One response was 'most do for undergraduates; half for postgraduates; none for staff' ; and the other 'some limit how many and some just let staff and postgraduates but not undergraduates'. Another library was not asking for validation but felt it was an interesting question for teaching staff as some requests may be for outside work or consultancies.
Do you limit the number of requests users can make at one time or over a period?
Seven said they impose no limits at the moment but one might impose a limit to encourage academic staff to recommend more stock purchase. A couple limit undergraduate use to final year students and one of those only allows them 4 requests. The same library limits Masters to 8 in their period of study. In one case where the school decides its limits the library sends monthly statistics to monitor individual usage and would notify the school in exceptional circumstance of particularly heavy usage by an individual who did not require pre-validation.
One sets weekly limits of 5 for students and 10 for researchers and staff. The student limit is not a problem but the other is. Another limits by differential charging - £1 for the first 5 requests, £5 per request thereafter. A third library sets the student limit to 20 per annum and staff 50 and stipulates that requests be for academic purposes only.
My query was sent because we are deciding on where to place our automated form and who to make it available to. Your responses have been very helpful, thank you once again.
Catherine O'Sullivan
Systems & Bibliographic Services Manager
St Mary's College
Waldegrave Road
Strawberry Hill
TWICKENHAM TW1 4SX
Tel: 020 8240 4303 Fax: 020 8240 4270
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