Proposed change to AM 200 ILL - checkout period will match the general collection
Submitted by vicki.thompson on Fri, 12/09/2016 - 16:13
Good afternoon staff,
ILL requested that we update one portion of the ILL policy to match a proposed change to AM 100. We are increasing the checkout period of ILL materials to 3 weeks to match the general collection. This change is being made to bring the ILL lending period into line with the proposed borrowing period for the rest of our collection, for ease of member use.
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Comments
This is really good. I know it will make our ILL patrons happy, and I'm sure it will please circ. staff as well, because they won't have to explain to patrons why ILL materials have a shorter due date.
I agree! I think this will be a great change all around, for staff and members.
Would it be possible to revise the policy to make reciprocal customers eligible? I just had to turn away a customer looking for some books in an older mystery series. He doesn't use any other library and we only have a few of the series.
This is not the first time that the idea of expanding ILL service to include reciprocal members has come up. The full ILL policy is scheduled for review in 2017, and I expect that the idea will be discussed then. The current update covers only the loan period, and was made to allow loan periods for all materials to be consistent.
However, I don’t think it’s likely that this part of the policy will change. As I understand it, many years ago the Commission felt that ILL service should be limited to those who do not have access to the service elsewhere, and who contribute to the library system’s budget. Reciprocal members were excluded because they have easy access to ILL through Pioneer, and their property tax money supports that system. Annual fee members are allowed to access ILL because the annual fee is supposed to be equivalent to the annual per-household property taxes for primary cardholders. I checked, and Pioneer has the same policy in place for their ILL service; reciprocal cardholders who live in the MLS service area are expected to come to us for ILL service.
Your comment mentions that the member in question “doesn’t use any other library”; however, s/he has the option to do so since s/he lives in the Pioneer service area. Pioneer offers online ILL requests, so s/he would only need to go to a library to pick up and return ILL members.
When the ILL policy is reviewed, updates and proposed changes will be posted in MyMetroLibrary, and staff will have the opportunity to view and comment then. I hope that you will add your voice to the discussion at that time.
It makes sense if Pioneer requires their reciprocal customers to come to us, that we should do the same with their customers. This particular customer lives in Newalla. I explained that he could ask for the titles through the McCloud Library and I offered to give him the phone number, but he said, "no thank you." I wasn't sure if this was the appropriate time/place to comment, but thought I would do it while it was fresh. I will look forward to the future discussion.
Yeah, as one who uses this service quite a bit and sometimes gets 3 items at once, I am thrilled abut the longer loan period.