The national Interlibrary Loan mailing list - ILL-L
Are you reading the national ILL mailing list? This is an active list with contributors who share information on all topics related to Interlibrary Loan. A frequent topic is how online systems, software and equipment is or isn't working for a particular library. Often, the problem will be solved by another person who has experience with the issue.
I see posts by staff from MINITEX libraries on the list frequently. Today, a post by Mike Grossman from Duluth Public Library illustrates how a good idea can become reality. After several of the "posters" grumbled about how difficult it is when a patron circumvents their ILL office to contact a lender directly to obtain special privileges, Mike offered this post:
"All responses to Heather's post below agreed - as do I - that there is
no good circumstance for a patron to go directly to a lending library,
around the borrowing Library's ILL staff.
I want to suggest that the problem really isn't that patrons go around
the borrowi ng library, however, it is that sometimes the lending library
responds to the patron's request (, promising to lend, granting
renewals, etc.) rather than send her or him back to the borrowing
library.
We can't control patron behavior, but perhaps we can influence the
behavior of ILL staffs. Perhaps it would help if the next revision of
the ILL code added a section specifying that it is the responsibility of
the borrowing library to respond to the borrowing patron, that lending
libraries should ALWAYS refer borrowing questions to the questioner's
home library."
It was such a good idea, that within a very short time of Mike's post, a member of American Library Association's Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) committee, who actually make changes in the National ILL Code commented that she will bring up his suggestion at the next meeting!
To sign up for the ILL-L list.