Dear All
We are like Sean's set up ILL is placed with Acquisitions in ou
organisational structure and we can buy things if we wish and I have a
University credit card. We buy copies of North American theses which we
give to our users and they can decide if it is something they would like us
to keep in which case it goes to the relevant subject librarian to get
added to stock.
We do suggest to users that they can suggest that the Library buys a copy
if we don't manage to get it on ILL especially if is a recent publication,
when what they are doing is looking to see if it is any good. I think this
discussion has got me thinking we could do more especially as I agree that
readers don't care where the copy comes from so long as they get it in the
time span that suits them.
Jean
--On 21 July 2006 14:07 +0100 Sean Austin
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear all
>
> we see ILL as in integral part of our whole acquisitions process taking
> the middle ground between satisfying reservations for items in our
> collection and actually purchasing the items. I suppose it helps that ILL
> and Acquisitions all come out of the same budget for acquiring published
> information so unlike UEA we have no obstacles in the way. The way we
> think of it is that when we receive a request from of our users they
> don't really care where we get it from ... just as long as we get hold of
> it.
>
> Searching Amazon and the like is a natural part of the ILL process (as is
> checking the www to see if items are available for free - Google Books
> alone has satisfied a number of requests for those who are prepared to
> read the book off their PC screen). We have a very flexible formula for
> deciding whether to go for a BL loan or not. If the book cost £20 or less
> we buy the book, no questions asked (we take into account the cost of a
> BL loan, a BL auto renewal and the cost of the total postage of the
> item). If the book is in the £20-50 range we look at how long the user
> needs the item for and how relevant it is to the scope of our collection.
>
> We never seem to have a problem with delivery times, even from those
> online bookshops who are based overseas. ILL stalwarts may put the
> argument that purchasing the books will result in other costs such as
> processing the purchased book etc but then there are many hidden costs in
> ILL such as chasing users for books that need returning to BL, the £120
> cost for a lost BL item (especially annoying when the book only cost a
> fiver!) and having to process renewals.
>
> Just to add, we are extremely lucky I guess that every member of staff
> has a VISA procurement card so orders are immediate.
>
>
> Sean A. Austin
> Library Services Advisor
> (ILL & Document Delivery)
> Information Services Unit (ISU)
> Environment Agency
> Bristol
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 20/07/2006 18:01:41 >>>
> Hello ILL community,
>
>
> We generally get most of our ILLs from the British L ibrary or other
> institutions who charge roughly the same as the BL. However
> occassionally when searching for items for readers I find them on
> sites like Amazon etc at prices cheaper than the cost of a BL loan. Do
> other folk out there ever just buy copies of items in these
> circumstances and supply them to their readers? or buy them and add
> them to stock?
> Are there any terrible unforeseen implications of doing this?
>
>
> thanks,
> Alan
>
>
> Alan Doherty
>
>
> Interlibrary Loans
> Perry Library
>
>
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----------------------
Jean I. Bradford
Serials and Inter-Library Document Supply
University of Bristol Information Services
Arts and Social Sciences Library
Tyndall Avenue
Bristol BS8 1TJ
Tel: 0117 928 8008 Fax: 0117 925 5334
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