Hi
Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my questions about getting books back and invoicing - here is a summary of responses:
What do you have in place to encourage student to return books?
Many who responded were using autorenewals.
One university uses underdue reminders.
Another who uses autorenewals, renews items 5 days early to give students warning of items that were reserved so couldn’t be renewed.
A couple of universities send a monthly account email to users to remind them what they have on loan and of any charges.
Many charge fines on overdue items, varying from 35p per day - £1 per day. Some had a maximum fine amount for each item.
Overdue reminders are used by all who responded, at varying timescales.
Some universities stop users from using their account when they have overdue items – one does this at 2 weeks overdue, others at time of invoicing, a couple don’t put a stop on user accounts.
Do you invoice students for non-returned books? If so, is it a set charge or the true cost of the book?
Most who responded invoice students, but the process can vary depending on whether they are a current student or a leaver.
One doesn’t invoice but adds replacement costs to the library account, but they are planning to move these costs on to the student finance system for them to follow up.
Another university also adds replacement cost to the library account so the user gets a bill via email once the item is a set number of days overdue. If replacement costs / fines reach £100 or more the debt is passed on to the finance department.
Invoicing is done at varying times – the shortest time is at 20 days overdue; one at 21 days; a month is used by several and 8 weeks by one. One university is about to change to invoicing at 14 days overdue.
Most who responded charge the replacement cost of the book, but a couple charged a fixed cost. Some add an admin fee either per item or per invoice.
Do you give the option to buy a replacement copy?
Some do and some don’t. Some allowed it if the item was lost. Some charged an admin fee for a user to provide a replacement copy.
Have you abandoned invoicing?
Out of 11 universities who responded, 3 add the cost of the non-returned item to the user’s library account. Of these 3, one is planning to move costs to the finance department to follow up and one passes on debts of £100+ for the finance department to follow up. One no longer passes user debts on to finance and says that they haven’t noticed a difference. They try and phone or SMS students with 5 items+ or high value items that have been billed for. This has had some success but is staff intensive.
Kind regards,
Jenny Maidment
Falmer Library Manager, Head of User Services,
University of Brighton
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