Oh for goodness sake, William, why hold a grudge and incur more costs so that others may not get a chance to read books?
I can't say enough good things about our highly-rated library system. I don't begrudge them a penny of the taxes they collect from me. I've always thought top-notch libraries were the best entertainment/education bargain around. I only have to use ILL maybe once a year because the collection is very robust.
Without knowing more about your library's computer system and how it is shared, I can't respond to that situation. I do know that our patrons occasionally wanted to jump the gun and go retrieve a book that we were getting for them via ILL, and that a complex process that I discouraged. However once in a while a patron would call me while he was standing in a university library holding a book he wanted us to get for him, so I worked with the university library to make special arrangements. But that was a very special arrangement, it required higher level staff to intercede, and it worked because I was at work that day and could overtirn barriers. My lower level staff who normally handled this stuff couldnt do it.
True interlibrary loan means that an owning library is lending a book to another library, the book is checked out to another library, it is not checked out to an individual person. That is key because the borrowing library takes full responsibility for the loan and if the book doesn't come back that borrowing library pays for it. Also, in true interlibrary transactions, the book is processed with the borrowing library's bar code that ties to the transaction for the patron. If the special processing is not in place, there is no way to discharge the book from the patron's account. Angry patrons ensue. That was always a factor in these special handlings outside the normal process.
Last edited by iris lilies; 7-12-17 at 12:29pm.
Imposing extra costs and inconvenience on any public service out of pique seems wrong to me. Like that woman who called 911 to complain that her McNuggets weren't getting served quickly enough. Or that guy who thought he was making some kind of point by paying his property taxes in pennies. It hurts taxpayers and system users more than the bureaucracy.
Like Jane i can't say enough good about our library, or about NYC's where I lived for,18 years. Having a well stocked library has enabled me to read countless books that I would never have bought but which 'sounded interesting' when I read about them or heard an interview of the author or whatever. Whatever of my tax dollars that goes to libraries is money very well spent in my opinion. As SO and I look towards retirement and where to live access to a decent library will definitely be one of our considerations.
I dated ex-BF for 7 years. He lived in a small town that housed the library in a small house. It was only open a few days a week and had no ILL. I told him in all seriousness that I could never live there. He thought I was kidding. Welp, I never lived there, lol.
Last edited by freshstart; 7-12-17 at 5:36pm.
I have always defined my minimum public library needs as a collection of 100,000 volumes. That was before digital content exploded all over the place, but that is still a decent guildeline for me. I worked in several libraries of that size and I know what I can expect to find.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)