Dear lis-ill colleagues
* Charging users for interlibrary loans in UK university libraries *
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- results of survey
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Last summer a survey was carried out to find out the charging
policies of UK university libraries. This email is a rather belated
summary of the findings of that survey (taken from the Conclusions
of the article). For the actual article and breakdown of stats,
please refer to a forthcoming issue of Interlending and Document
Supply (I don't yet have the publication date).
Many thanks to the institutions and libraries who took part, and to
those who don't offer an ILL service but still took time to reply.
Pat Clinton
Faculty Librarian at South Bank University, London
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This survey is a follow-up to one undertaken in 1994. The aim was to
discover latest library practice regarding charging and other related
issues for interlibrary loans in UK university libraries. Of the 325
questionnaires sent - this also included all libraries within the
universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London, - 170 (52 per cent)
responded and of those, 120 libraries (70 per cent) provided an ILL
service.
117 libraries from 120 gave details on their ILL charging policy,
with 76 libraries from the 117 (65 per cent) charging and a small
number regulating ILLs on a quota system. Only a handful of libraries
which currently do not charge have plans to or are considering doing
so in the near future.
The most popular charges made to groups of users were £1 per request
to students and staff and £7-10 to externals Where a flat rate per
request was in operation, the most common charges were £5, £1 and £2
respectively.
When a charge was introduced, demand for requests generally
decreased but in most cases rose again slightly and then remained
static. Surprisingly not many libraries experienced a surge in
complaints: the vast majority had no problems on this front and if
some did, the small numbers decreased after a while.
Some libraries also made a charge for overdue ILLs, lost items and
renewals, and a very small number charged an administration cost.
Budgets for interlibrary loans were for the most controlled by the
libraries concerned.
The use of electronic sources is playing an increasingly important
role in document delivery, with bibliographical databases encouraging
demand for requests, full-text databases (especially in particular
subject areas such as business information) allowing access to
articles from journal titles to which the library does not subscribe
and the use of electronic document delivery also for items not held
locally.
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Pat Clinton
Faculty Librarian
Perry Library
South Bank University
250 Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 6NJ
Phone: +44 (0) 171-815-6639
FAX: +44 (0) 171-815-6699
E-Mail [log in to unmask]
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