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Thank you to those of you who responded to my email on the subject of services to alumni. I received 20 responses, mainly from large University libraries. Here's a summary: In the case of 8 libraries (usually the more specialised colleges), no charge is made to alumni. Where a charge is made, the annual fee ranges from £20 to £75. The average cost is just over £40. Some of these libraries make no charge for reference use only. The majority offer some kind of discount to alumni members, on a permanent basis: 10% discount - 1 institution 30% discount - 4 institutions 50% discount - 5 institutions 2 offered free membership for the first year; 1 for the first 6 months. In only 1 case was the subsequent annual fee the same as for other external members (but this was low, at £20) 5 libraries only offer Reference access to alumni members (4 of these also made no charge) Otherwise, all other libraries allowed limited loans, with the number of loans varying between 2 to 6 items. Short loans are usually excluded. 1 library charges fines for overdue books (no fines for staff and students) In general, alumni members are not entitled to use computing facilities, with 12 institutions offering no computing services at all. The others tend to offer access to stand-alone CD-ROMs only, or restricted access to electronic resources, according to their licenses. 2 institutions allow full computing access - in one case a booking must be made in advance. 4 institutions allow access to the computer network for up to 1 year following graduation, with 2 of them charging for this (at £12.50 a year, or £2.50 per month). Also of interest: 1 library has set a limit of 50 alumni allowed to join per year (but they have never reached that limit). Thanks again. Christine Smith Reader Services Librarian Bolton Institute Deane Road Bolton BL3 5AB (01204) 903090 or 903279 [log in to unmask]