Hi everyone, 

We at the University of Leeds Library are about to undertake a review into usage and management of our short loan collection. I’d be really appreciative of any answers to our questions, as set out below, or any general comments pertaining to similar reviews and changes in practice in your own institution. 

I will anonymise and collate all responses for anybody who wishes to view them. Please email me directly with your experiences/answers/expressions of interest in the collated answers at [log in to unmask]  

***For the purpose of our review we have defined short loan as loanable books with a loan period of 3-days or less, we are excluding A/V, journal articles or any other non-book material***

1.	Does your institution have a “short loan” collection (SLC)? 

If no, and your institution used to have one, why did you get rid? What level of analysis and consultation did you employ whilst making decisions to put an end to the collection? Any other relevant info welcome. 

***There’s no need for anybody who responded with “no” to Q1 to answer any further questions, everyone else, please continue***

2.	Has your institution noticeably increased or decreased number of books in the SLC over the last few years? What were the reasons for the increase/decrease? How many books are currently in your SLC? 

3.	Does your SLC have its own distinct security controlled area or are your SLC books interfiled with standard collections? Any comments, drawbacks, advantages etc. with regards to the merits of either arrangement?

4.	Do you allow your SLC items to be reserved and/or renewed? If so, what have been the advantages and disadvantages, if any? 

5.	What loan periods do you apply to your SLC items and what fining structure do you use?

6.	How do you decide which items are added to your SLC? 

7.	Does anybody have any experience in allowing students to suggest items be added to the SLC? Has this worked well?

8.	How do you decide which items are removed from your SLC and how often do you remove items, e.g. systemically at the end of each semester/end of each academic year, if additional non-SLC copies are purchased throughout the year etc.?

Thank you and best wishes,

Emilia Vinci

Assistant Manager (Stock Operations)
University of Leeds Library