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Many thanks to all of you who replied to my message about postal loans. Here is a summary of responses to the questions I asked: Do you charge a fee? 7 institutions offered a free service. Charges at other institutions were: £3 per item Minimum fee of £4.35 £7 per book; £4 per photocopy and £2.40 scanned to e-mail Do students pay the return cost? At 8 institutions students did pay the return cost, while at 3 institutions it was a compleetly free service. Does your policy apply to all students eligible to use the service? 3 institutions specified distance learners only. At 4 institutions it was open to any student/member of staff. One institution responded that the policy was applied at their discretion; another that the policy applied to anyone within reason who asks for it; and another that it applied to distance learners or PT living outside of the county. Is there a limit on the number of books that can be requested via postal loan? There was no uniformity in response to this question. Limits ranged from none down to 1 or 2 requests at one time. The crucial factor seems to be the number of simultaneous requests. How do you help students access Reading List material? Digitisation and e-books were mentioned by 3 respondents. Another institution mentioned generous arrangements for supplying photocopies to distance learners, while at another institution they offered longer loan periods. Other information 3 institutions post worldwide. One institution mentioned that they had a number of outreach centres which provide books for courses, so in these instances, some users are not then eligible for postal loans. The SCONUL access scheme was flagged up. One institution commented that the Postal Loan service was not a well-used service, even after it had been re-publicised. I also received a comparative review of services offered to distance learning students by 7 universities, so can provide contact details for that. If anyone would like more information, please get in touch with me off-list. Merry Christmas!