Interlibrary Subcommittee Notes

March 28, 2023, 10 a.m.

Via Zoom

Present: Kathy Wolkoff, MAD; Emily Wilcox, MAD, Jenny Carr, MID; Mark Cullen, VER; Marylu Silka, ACL; Natalie Kruse, MFD; Leah Fritsche, DEE; Nathan Rybarczyk, BAR; Diane Casselberry, STP

Absent: Nancy Myers, MRO; Autumn Baumann, POR; Lindsey Ganz, COL; Eric Norton, MCM; Cindy Stankey, SUN

Recorder: Jean Anderson

SCLS staff present: Jean Anderson, Heidi Oliversen

1. Call to order time 10:02 a.m.

a. Introductions

b. Changes/Additions to the Agenda

i. Added Statistics to Madison OLL Update

2. Approval of previous meeting minutes: October 25, 2022

a. Changes or corrections:

i. Clarified in 3a: Lost/Damaged payments to SCLS Libraries: “how we get the money to the owning SCLS libraries. MAD feels more in control of the process and confident that our member libraries are getting their money. When an item owned by an SCLS library is lost or damaged and after conferring with the owning library, Madison sends a check to the owning SCLS library. They then bill the external borrowing library to get payment.”

b. Jenny Carr moved to approve with changes, Kathy Wolkoff seconded, motion approved

3. Discussion items

a. Madison OLL Update

i. Playaway/Wonderbooks update, discussion, and decision on continuing

1. During pilot project to respond more thoughtfully rather than automatically saying no. Madison OLL staff kept track of the borrowing requests and received a grand total of 5 requests for any type of digital audio device over the last 6 months. One of those was a Wonderbook owned by Madison. It came back from out of state with no issues. Second was a Playaway owned by MAD that came back with no issues. Third and fourth were Playaways from SUN and BER. Fifth was a Vox book owned by two SCLS libraries and it was checked out so Madison said no and the request moved on. It seems there is not going to be an overwhelming demand for this so no library will have a large demand for their collection. In Kathy’s opinion, the impact is not going to be huge so Madison doesn’t see a problem with continuing to lend. To make the change more permanent, Madison would change our public policy on OCLC (what’s visible to other libraries). Right now it says we don’t lend digital audio players. Madison would remove this statement if recommended.

a. ILL Subcommittee recommends that SCLS will lend digital audio players and change the public policy in OCLC to remove the statement that we don’t lend digital audio players.

i. Nathan Rybarczyk moves, Jenny Carr seconds, Motion passes

b. Does this need to go to AC/ILS? Jean will check and report back.

ii. Documentation for paying lenders for lost/damaged items

1. When an SCLS patron loses or damages an item from an outside library and the library receives an invoice from the lending library. Kathy realized we don’t have very good documentation on this process and it doesn’t happen very often to any one library. Kathy would like there to be better and more helpful documentation for libraries for when it does happen. Looking for some guidance on what libraries would find helpful.

a. Jenny (MID) – basic guidelines and then case by case

b. Mark (VER) – saved emails from Kathy so have that as documentation. They received cash – what to do with that? Types of payment preferred.

c. Marylu (ACL) – general guidelines.

d. Consensus: Kathy will work on guidelines and send to the ILL email list

iii. Time period for re-requesting items

1. Question has come up recently: How long does my patron have to wait before re-requesting the same title?

2. Nathan (BAR) remembers 90 days from past committee

3. Diane at STP has 8 weeks

4. Leah at DEE – 3 months

5. Jenny at MID – 6 weeks

6. Natalie at MFD – 6 weeks

7. Mark at VER – 8 weeks

8. Marylu at ACL – 90 days

9. This may have been decided to be a local decision. MAD tends to tell their staff 8 weeks but don’t have it published for the public. Question is do you want a limit that is dictated by MAD? Would you prefer to have some latitude?

10. Marylu (ACL) – some sort of limit to point to would be good

11. Leah (DEE) – agrees

12. Mark (VER) – when the language is clear, we get less blowback from patrons wanting special requests.

13. Heidi (SCA) – helpful to have a higher level policy to refer back to and then subject to local library policy

14. Jenny (MID) – nice to be consistent with it and can make exceptions as needed

15. Nathan (BAR) – will stick with 90 days (they borrow on their own)

16. Kathy (MAD) – what’s the reason behind the policy? Sounds like we should have a guideline for libraries?

17. Nathan referred to the ILL Guidelines - https://www.scls.info/ill/help/guidelines and in the Generic Letter of why request cannot be filled, the time listed is 8 weeks: https://www.scls.info/ill/patron

iv. Statistics: overall up in 2022 but still down from 2019. Lending is significantly down from 25,000 (2019) and 15,000 (2022). Lending borrowing ratio 2:1 in the past and 1.5:1 now. Net lender still but creeping down.

b. WISCAT for 2023

i. Too early to look at stats and compare it to previous years but this is making things easier for MAD OLL staff. They can get more things in-state.

c. Contact updates for 2023

i. Jean (SCA) updated the email addresses for libraries on the Subject/Reference form and will be sending out a form to everyone to update all the contact information for 2023.

4. Plan for next meeting: October 31, 2023

a. PlayAway/Wonderbook Update

b. Re-requesting items

5. Adjournment: 11:07 a.m.

For more information about the Interlibrary Loan Subcommittee, contact Jean Anderson.

SCLS staff are available to attend cluster meetings to share information and answer questions pertaining to this committee meeting and other departmental projects.

ILL/Notes/03-2023