Hello Judith

Our general rule is that if the Library has incurred any direct expense
we don't refund.  Sometimes the item has been sent out by the time the
user asks us to cancel.  We will obviously be billed for the loan, so in
this case we would not refund the voucher.  If we are able to cancel
with the supplying library before they send us the item, we would
refund.

If we have simply been unable to track down an item, we do refund, even
if we have spent a disproportionate time working on the request.

Our main problem is with people who don't check the catalogue.  We now
have a clause on our web page which states that if we find that a
requested item is in fact held in the library, we are no longer obliged
to refund the voucher.  We generally allow each person a couple of
offences, but it soon becomes a case of "the usual suspects" and at that
stage we send them a message informing them of our decision not to
refund their voucher (having already checked that the book is actually
on the shelf or is simply out on loan).  I've had the occasional
"discussion" with an unhappy user, but on the whole, by the time it
reaches the non-refunding stage, they are prepared for it.  Put it this
way, yesterday one member of staff had 15 out of his original 18
requests returned to him unprocessed because they were either available
online or were physically on the shelves.  This was his first and last
offence from the point of view of refunds!

Hope this helps

Marjory

Marjory Lobban
Document Delivery Supervisor
Edinburgh University Library
George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LJ
Scotland

Phone: (0)131 650 3377
Ariel: 129.215.253.1 

-----Original Message-----
From: For interlibrary-loan and document supply services.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Document Delivery Service
Durham University
Sent: 30 March 2007 13:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Refunding cancelled requests


Dear All, 
    I just wanted to ask how other libraries deal with refunding users 
for cancelled ILL requests? At Durham University we use a voucher system

for paying for ILL requests and if we cancel requests because the item 
isn't available, or because the user asks then I return the voucher to 
use against their next request. Our policy is not to refund cash and 
this is generally fine right up until the point when users have no 
further ILL requests to make and then the complaints just roll in. I 
just wondered what do other libraries do? Does anyone accept ILL 
vouchers against fines, which would be one of the more obvious things, 
however I wondered how much difficulty would arise from mixing and 
matching funds? We do advertise our policies far and wide but the 
message is difficult to get across to users who can't appreciate the 
staff time involved and just argue that they haven't received what they 
paid for. If anyone has any ideas how to improve this I would be very 
interested.

Yours,

Judith Walton,
Document Delivery Service,
Durham University Library