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C-7 Library Committee
APPENDIX A
REPORT OF THE ULC SUBCOMMITTEE ON LOAN
PERIODS
MARCH 3, 2000
Colleagues:
The Subcommittee on Circulation Loan Periods of the University
Library
Committee met yesterday at 8:30 AM to review the recommendations
we drafted in December. We revised the wording of Recommendations 2, 3,
and 4 to clarify them and added one more recommendation. The complete
set of revised recommendations is listed below.
You will also have seen Chair Phil Doty's message to the
Committee, sent yesterday afternoon, in which he asked for your reactions
to the Subcommittee's original recommendations.
If you have comments on either set of recommendations,
we will have an opportunity to discuss them at the full Committee meeting
on Monday, March 6, at 12 noon.
Recommendations:
| 1. |
Make Recall and Hold services more widely known to
users, primarily by giving more visibility to those and other borrower
services on the library's web pages. The services themselves are excellent,
but they are not as apparent to users as they could be.
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| 2. |
Endorse the planned extension of checkout privileges
to all non-enrolled but continuing students during the summer, dropping
earlier requirements for students to pay a fee and/or to come to
the PCL Circulation Services Department to activate these privileges.
Borrowers' easy access to the Due-List/Renew service
resulted in increased renewals (or attempts at renewals) by students
in summer 1999 and frustration for some who did not realize that
they needed to be enrolled or pay a fee to be eligible for it. The
University maintains students' records on file during the long session
and the summer session, so the systems work to support this privilege
will be relatively simple.
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| 3. |
Discontinue mail renewal for faculty and professional
staff by spring 2001 while advertising, encouraging, and emphasizing
the option of online renewal via the Due-List/Renew system (using
UTNetCAT). This strategy may help change the behavior of some of
these borrowers by making renewals somewhat less convenient and
should encourage the return of materials they are not using.
Statistics for PCL Circulation Services mail renewal
lists indicate that in spring 1999 to renew materials for summer
1999, 1,396 lists were produced and 634 were returned by faculty
and professional staff for processing, a 45% return rate. In fall
1999 to renew materials for spring 2000, 1,312 lists were produced
and 618 were returned for processing, a 47% return rate.
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| 4. |
Continue the semester loan period for faculty and
professional staff and extend the semester loan period to graduate
students and classified staff starting in fall 2000.
Loan Period for Faculty:
The Subcommittee makes this recommendation in recognition
of the political reality that there is much for the library to lose
and nothing to gain from a campus debate on changing the loan period
for faculty, when there are other important issues, particularly
funding, to consider and faculty support for the library is critical.
Loan Period for Graduate Students:
The Subcommittee makes this recommendation in view
of the high number of renewals by graduate students who are already
giving themselves a defacto semester loan, the fact that the number
of recalls by graduate students is small in comparison with the
total number of items checked out, and the belief that providing
a common semester due date for graduate students would remove an
unnecessary bureaucratic requirement and serve as a major assist
to the prompt completion of their degree programs.
Loan Period for Classified Staff:
The Subcommittee makes this recommendation in consideration
of the fact that this is a small group of library users. Implementing
it will allow the library to align ourselves with the University's
"digital certificate" technology initiative.
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| 5. |
Establish a continuing subcommittee of the University
Library Committee which is charged to review circulation loan periods
and borrowers' privileges. |
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Jo Anne
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