Dear all,

Thank you to everyone who responded to my email about free interlibrary requests. Below is a summary of the responses I received.

I received 11 responses - 9 libraries allow renewals, 2 don't allow renewals.

Are the renwals free:

2 libraries this isn' applicable as they don't allow renewals

2 allow free renewals

7 charge - Of the libraries that charge for renewals 3 libraries said they only charge for renewals from BL, 1 said undergraduates pay £1.50 per renewal and postgraduates/staff have free renewals, 1 said the first renewal is free, second renewal is £3 with a maximum of 5 renewals allowed, 1 said they charge £5 per renewal.

How do you encourage readers to return books - there were a number of different ideas about how to do this:

Items received on inter-library loan aren't allowed to be borrowed.

Set a limit on the number of renewals on any item:

in one instance this was set at 3 renewals

Set at 2 renewals and then asked for it to be returned, block placed on library record if not returned

Set at 2 renewals then overdue fines applied

Departments may pay for requests and renewals and if an item is renewed a number of times may ask the liaison librarian to buy a copy.

Manually chase by email/phone and remind readers that failure to return items prompltly may result in the lending library refusing to lend items in future.

Send adhoc email to a reader and emphasise how much BL renewals cost.

Force a recall by using an internal ticket.

Require readers to actively request a renewal, so even if the item is automatically renewed, such as BL loans, don't update the due date on the library account.

Regards,

Elaine Wilson

-- 
Elaine Wilson
InterLibrary Request Service,
The University of Sheffield,
Health Sciences Library,
Beech Hill Road,
Sheffield.
S10 2RX

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