Dear all,

 

Here at LJMU we operate our search room on a by appointment basis and we are starting to wonder if it would be worth limiting the number of items that people can request for each visit – to save valuable staff time from spending ages getting a lot of material out for people that they will never get through.

 

Obviously this is a tricky subject as when researchers come for a couple of days from a distance they can get through a lot of material / want to maximise their time and we don’t have the staff to get more material out for them once they are here, but we have had a few occasions lately where we have spent a lot of time retrieving material that the researcher just hasn’t had time to get through. 

 

I would therefore love to hear from anyone in a similar situation who has considered this option or does have a set limit.  What I would like to know is:

 

-          Have you set a limit on the number of items that researchers can order for each visit?

-          What is that limit?  How did you reach that figure?

-          What is the reaction from researchers?

-          Have you considered it and decided against it?  Why?

-          Have you tried it, found it didn’t work and have reverted back to not having a limit?  Why was it unsuccessful?

 

If this is something other people would also be interested in I will happily collate any responses for the list (anonymised of course).

 

Thank you in advance for any help!

 

Morag.

 

Morag Fyfe

Research & Learner Support Officer

Special Collections & Archives / Art & Design

(Thursday and Friday)

 

Library and Student Support

Liverpool John Moores Univeristy

Aquinas Building

Maryland Street
Liverpool
L1 9DE