Appendix A: Best Practices Guidelines

General:

• Encourage lending. View lending services as a priority equal to borrowing
• Communicate lending standards to staff and students.
• Look for the item in the stacks only once
• Attach original request form or similar bibliographic paperwork to all materials.
• Use reasons for “No”; send “Conditionals” only for “not found as cited “.
• Update records several times a day
• Handle “rush” requests in a case by case manner between libraries.
• Notify ill-l@blc.umb.edu when an individual library is going to lower case on OCLC for a period of time. It is understood that this event is unusual and to be considered an emergency measure i.e. Christmas week, staffing vacancies, etc.

Non-Returnables:

• Transmit by Ariel, Fax, or deliver by UPS letter 2^nd day
• Configure Ariel coversheet defaults to display your IP address as sender.
• Use Ariel “Dither” feature generously for illustrations, photographs or graphics.
• Check “Special Messages Lending” daily: respond to “Not Received” and “Resend” requests with proper ILL identification. If color copies are critical to the request, send through UPS letter 2nd day.
• Set receiving stations for 24 hour availability
• Union list Local Data Records on OCLC

Returnables:

• Deliver by UPS 2^nd day
• Generously lend videos, CDs, DVDs, microform, dissertations, theses, and other normally non-circulating material on a case-by-case basis.
• Do not impose blanket lending restrictions (i.e., “for use in library only”).
• Allow a minimum of 30 days use from date of receipt.
• Include a return courier routing slip or shipping label with loaned material – especially if you have multiple library sites.
• Post Mail/UPS pick up and delivery times for expedited workflow.
• Return “recalled” material via UPS 2^nd Day
• Rush catalog “in-process” or uncataloged material if your lending institution appears last on lender string.

These guidelines support the turnaround time needs of BLC lending operations polled in surveys in 2001 and 2002 and establishes a framework for measurable performance for processing returnable and non-returnable items as directed in the charge of this task force. It identifies characteristics present in high performing interlibrary loan operations within the BLC and other consortia in the United States, Canada and Australia. It addresses the key trends in resource sharing for the near future, outlined by Mary Jackson as:

· user expectations for fast service with no charge or limits

· personalized order and delivery of documents and monographs to users desktops/offices/homes

· Increased interlibrary loan borrowing and lending due to customer access to records on the Internet.

They also conform to item 5.4 of the revised Interlibrary Loan Code of 2001 for the United States that states:

The supplying library should process requests

in a timely manner that recognizes the needs

of the requesting library…