At the July staff meeting, I spoke about the increased popularity of interlibrary loan for our patrons. Because of the volume of requests we’re now receiving, TS has made some refinements to the process.
Five Active Requests
Patrons may no longer submit more than 5 interlibrary loan requests at a time. We used to allow them to submit as many as they wanted, with the understanding that only 5 could be active at a time. This proved too difficult for us to manage, and we’re shifting the responsibility of managing multiple requests back to the patron.
Eric has modified the interlibrary loan request form to check the Polaris database for the number of active requests. When the patron tries to submit the sixth request, s/he receives an error message.
Two Renewals
Patrons may only request two renewals of borrowed material. Approval of renewals is still at the discretion of the lending library. TS will submit a request to the lending library. While we’re waiting to hear back, the patron may hang on to the item. We’ll resolve any overdue fees once we hear back from the lending library.
Renewals do not display in the Items Out view for interlibrary loan materials, so forward all renewal requests to Dreama and Missy via e-mail. We’ll determine whether the patron is eligible to request a renewal.
An FAQ is now available on the web site to answer everyone’s questions about ILL.