LENDING

Karen Janke
IUPUI: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
University Library (IUP)
Indianapolis, Indiana
10 Commandments of ILL?
 Thou shalt not let a
request fall off OCLC
 Thou shalt return
multi-volume sets to
the lender all at once
 Thou shalt not staple
jiffy bags
 Thou shalt honor the
Interlibrary Loan Code
for the United States
Benjamin Franklin’s
Poor Richard’s Almanack
 Fish and ILL Requests
smell after four days.
 Beware of the young
Doctor, the old Barber,
and the desperate PhD
student.
 A learned ILL
practitioner is a greater
ILL practitioner than an
ignorant one.
But they didn’t teach me this in Library
School….
 Best Practices in Medical Interlibrary Loan and Electronic
Document Delivery. Special issue of Journal of Interlibrary
Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve, Vol. 17(3) 2007
 Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: Best Practices for
Operating and Managing Interlibrary Loan Services in all
Libraries. Special issue of Journal of Interlibrary Loan,
Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve Vol. 16, (1/2) 2006
 Leon, Lars E., et al. Enhanced Resource Sharing Through Group
Interlibrary Loan Best Practices: A Conceptual, Structural, and
Procedural Approach. portal: Libraries and the Academy 3(3)
2003, pp. 419-40
Lending Nuts and Bolts
 What are you going to lend?
 For how long? Is 30 days enough?
 For how much?
 How are you going to deliver it?
 Do you need a computerized system to manage it?
 How do you check out materials in your ILS?
 How many people do you need/can you afford in
order to accomplish this?
Library-to-Library
Communications
 Policies Directory / Website
 Policies Directory (try searching
“YOM”)
 Lender Website Examples
 E-mail address & Phone (and in your

constant data)?
 Account checked at least once a day?
Patron Communications
 Borrowers: How overdue is it?
 Borrowers: Don’t ask the lending library to play
the heavy – issuing invoices costs them money!
 Borrowers: Complaints about fees for borrowing?
Please don’t give out lending library’s name/phone
number.
 Borrowers: Communicate to your patrons how to
renew.
 Lenders: Making deals/special arrangements
directly with patrons of other libraries?
Borrowers: To Rush or Not to
Rush…
 Document Supplier / British Library
 Check lending library website or

policies directory
 Try calling or emailing lender first!

 Don’t bombard lenders with a fax of

an existing request.
You scratch my back….
 Borrower: send a thank you, and cc: their boss!
 Borrower: offer to pay overnight FedEx or UPS
with your account number
 Lender: remember and seek them out when you
need a favor
 Moving Right Along...
 Just Say “No” to Conditionals such as…
 “Sorry, non circulating!”
 “Sorry, we lack this year”
 “Not as Cited” now goes directly to Unfilled
 “We only have vol 1 of this 2 vol set, do you
still want it?” (and are 1st in the string)
 If you can’t find the book on the shelf and
you are the first lender in the string, SAY
NO.
Lost in the Mail?
 Borrowers: If you borrow it, and it never arrives,
you’re still obligated to pay for it.
 Borrowers: Offer to replace a lost or damaged item
on behalf of the lender.
ILL Departments are not Collection
Managers!
 But it pays to make nice with them!
 Can exceptions be made?
 How many items have been lost/damaged?
 How many times has it circulated in the past?
 Could it be replaced easily?
If what you’re being asked to
lend/borrow is non-circ, why?
 Rare?
 Expensive?

 In Demand?

 Can you buy it?

Special Edition!
 Lenders: Check the
requested item versus
what’s pulled from the
stacks….
 Especially for classic
literature or when there
are numerous editions.
 THIS EDITION ONLY
statements in request
Citation Verification: Whose job is it?

 Answer: Borrowing Library!

 Google is the BFF of ILL!
 Series statements? Proceedings as monograph or
serials? Reprints? Freely accessible websites or e-
journals?
 Serials with title changes (fields 780 & 785)
 Ask for help on the ILL Listserv, but give ALL the
info
$$$
 “Our IFM report from 2 years ago shows a
discrepancy and we’re now charging you $10 via an
invoice.”
 Mistakes happen, but check your IFM reports
promptly.
 If the financial error is > 6-12 months or from a
different fiscal year, or can’t be solved through a
dummy request, forget it!
 Lenders: Don’t fill the request when the maxcost is
lower than your fee! Borrowers aren’t obliged to pay.
Dissertation Abstracts International
 Lenders: Do they really want the abstract?
 Borrowers: Do your patrons know what they are
requesting?
 Borrowers: Google Scholar for digital repositories
Busy is Relative
 Large volume lenders: 700+ transactions PER
DAY
 Small Libraries: part-time staff, may not have the
expertise
Electronic Delivery on the Cheap
 Fax Machines: Just Say No!
 Odyssey Standalone
 Send and/or Receive
 https://osu.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/osu/lending/odysseyfaq.html
 http://www.atlas-sys.com/products/odyssey/
 Can receive as a borrower without scanning as a
lender.
 Email PDFs
 Ariel transmissions that don’t go through?
Dear OCLC,
 Records for International Libraries who don’t lend
or have any information about how to borrow from
them are seriously annoying
 Deflect requests based on max cost, filtered by
custom holding group
Hiring
 Hire people who have worked in food service and
were good at it!
 Can you type?
Lighten Up!
 Is anyone going to die?
 Borrowers: don’t be upset if your request is turned
down.
 Most people try to do the right thing most of the
time.
 ILL Karma & The Golden Rule