Lys Ann,
Lys Ann Reiners said the following on 17/02/2010 14:02:
> I am doing a survey for Sconul Focus on core / short loan collections,
> and would be really grateful if you could answer the following
> questions:
>
> Does your library have a short loan collection?
No.
> If so, approximately how many volumes does it contain?
>
> Has the size of the collection changed in the last 3 years?
Yes.
> If so, is it larger or smaller?
We got rid of it.
> If it has shrunk, is this due to the availability of e-books?
> Or another reason?
It wasn't ebooks. We found that dedicating certain copies to have
shorter loan periods than others caused problems:
- it was difficult to explain to customers why some of them got
shorter loan periods than others
- people would often accidentally pick up a short loan copy from
the shelf when there were longer loan copies available
- it was random as to which copy people would get when reserving
- it was very difficult and expensive to change the stock to
reflect changing in teaching patterns, and impossible to change
to reflect short-term demands - in particular if the only copy
was short-loan to meet a 2 week need and required regular
renewals throughout the rest of the year when no-one else
wanted it
> What is your loan period/s?
Unreserved items are 1 week for undergrads, 2 weeks for postgrad taught
and 4 weeks for staff and postgrad research. Reserved copies are 2 days
for most people. There are variations for certain items and certain
customers. Basically, the length of the loan period is reflected by the
amount of demand.
> Have you changed your loan periods recently?
Yes.
> If so, why?
See above.
> Do you have any plans to change your short loan collection in the near
> future?
No.
Cheers,
Andy Bussey
University of Sheffield Library
--
Andy Bussey Tel. 0114 222 7265
40 Victoria Street Mob. 0778 715 2149
University of Sheffield
Sheffield. S3 7QB Email: [log in to unmask]
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