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 Massachusetts Metrowest Regional Library System (MMRLS) Interlibrary Loan Policy
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For more information..
Introduction
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is essential to libraries of all types and serves as a means of expanding the amount of materials that can be made available to patrons. Each library has the responsibility to develop and maintain a collection designed to meet the needs of its patrons; ILL borrowing supplements such local collection development. Interlibrary Loan relies on cooperation among libraries; therefore, ILL lending should be as generous as possible.
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Definitions
An interlibrary loan is a transaction in which library material, or a copy of the material, is made available by one library to another library upon request. This policy is meant to address mediated interlibrary loan transactions handled by the MMRLS Regional Interlibrary loan center on behalf of the members of the region. It does not include local transfers between libraries within the same automated library system; such local transactions are out of the scope of this policy. An interlibrary loan also does not include such separate resource sharing systems as Point to Point, MassCat or Virtual Catalog. There are policy statements in place for each of these systems.
Interlibrary loan consists of two simultaneous operations: borrowing and lending. In the borrowing operation, materials are borrowed for members of the region from libraries anywhere in the country and abroad. In the lending operation, materials from member libraries are loaned out to libraries in the United States and Canada.
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Agreement
The MMRLS Interlibrary loan policy is meant to conform to such existing policies as the National Interlibrary Loan Code, the NELINET Interlibrary loan Reciprocal Code, and the U.S. Code Title 17 concerning copyright law.
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Interlibrary Loan Borrowing Policy
Interlibrary loan service is available to users of the Region's member libraries. This service has no age restrictions. Borrowers must, however, be in good standing at the member library.
Libraries may request any type of material via interlibrary loan. However, it is difficult to borrow entire issues of periodicals, rare materials, materials classified as reference materials, and items in high demand at the lending library, including newly acquired material and bestsellers.
The COTU guidelines to the copyright law of the United States specifies that each library may borrow no more than five photocopies of articles from the most recent five years' run of each periodical within a calendar year without paying a fee to the copyright holder. It is the borrowing library's responsibility to keep track of their requests so that these limits are not exceeded. There are additional limitations as to the proportional amount of an item that may be copied. There are exemptions to these limitations for periodicals subscribed to by the library, but discarded by date. Copies of photocopy requests must be retained for three full calendar years beyond the year in which the request was made. It is each library's responsibility to be knowledgeable about copyright issues.
Requesting libraries must provide as complete a bibliographic citation as possible on the appropriate request form. They must also provide library contact information for any necessary follow up.
The Regional Interlibrary Loan Center will process member library's interlibrary loan requests in a timely fashion, and will keep the members informed as to the progress of their requests. If items cannot be borrowed, locations for potential local use will be provided, if available.
As much as possible, materials will be borrowed for use outside of the library. However, if the lending library imposes a restriction of "in library use only", the ILL center will pass on the restriction to the member library and expect them to abide by it.
Due dates for interlibrary loan materials are set by the lending library. Member libraries must ensure that borrowed materials are on their way back to the Interlibrary Loan center so they are returned to the lending library by their due date. Adherence to returning materials on-time is vital. Tardy returns jeopardize the borrowing privileges for the entire regional membership. Renewals may be requested on most materials and should be done so before the due date.
Requesting libraries will respond in a timely fashion to queries about overdue materials or materials that have been recalled by the lending library.
Materials will be obtained from free lenders, if possible. If there is a charge for the loan, the Interlibrary Loan Center will offset the charge by a reciprocal charging protocol. In reciprocal charging, the Interlibrary loan Center charges libraries that borrow from the region and are not themselves free lenders. This accumulates a sum that can be used to pay borrowing fees.
Materials will be packaged in such a way as to minimize the potential of damage in transit. If materials are lost or damaged between the lending library and the requesting library, the Interlibrary loan center will pay any fees. If materials are lost or damaged while in the hands of the requesting library or its patron, the requesting library will pay any fees. Prompt payment of such fees is necessary so the region's status as a borrower is not jeopardized.
ILL services may be suspended or limited for member libraries who abuse the privilege by repeatedly keeping materials beyond their due date, damaging or defacing materials, not paying for materials lost or damaged by their patrons, or failing to answer queries from the ILL center.
The Interlibrary Loan center will maintain such statistics as are requried by the Metrowest Office.
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Interlibrary Loan Lending Policy
Metrowest member libraries are encouraged to loan out materials as freely as they request them.
The regional Interlibrary Loan Center serves as a conduit for interlibrary lending services to libraries within the United States or abroad as long as their requests are sent in a recognizable format via mechanisms such as OCLC, fax or mail. The center passes on such lending requests to member libraries. The center also answers requests appropriately, ships the item to the borrower and back to the lender, and is responsibile for tracking the item throughout the process.
Any item that would be loaned to another library within the local automated system may be requested for Interlibrary Loan lending. The two exceptions are that no loan requests can be fulfilled for whole issues of periodicals, or for items newer than three months. Non-circulating materials such as reference materials or microfilm will be loaned only in exceptional circumstances. The owning library may refuse any request. It is encouraged that they state the reason for such a refusal.
Member libraries must answer the regional ILL center's queries as to whether or not they are willing to lend a particular item in the specified time period.
Items will be loaned for 28 days and may be renewed if there is not a request outstanding in the local automated network.
Occasionally, materials that belong to member libraries will be lost or damaged while they are out on loan through the regional Interlibrary loan center. In such cases, the ILL center will ask for a bill from the member library. Any such fees will be passed on to the borrowing library. The ILL center will mediate successful payment or replacement.
The Regional Interlibrary loan center will impose a fee on those borrowing libraries that charge for lending. The fee will be equal to the lending fee such a library charges. The money gained in these transactions will be retained by the Interlibrary Loan center and will be used to help mitigate the necessity of charging member libraries when a borrowing transaction incurs a fee.
The Interlibrary loan center will maintain such statistics as are required by the Metrowest Office.
Approved 1/2/2004 by the Metrowest Interlibrary Loan Committee. |
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