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Elimination of ILL Fees for Non-Returnable Items

The BC ELN community is moving forward with the elimination of interlibrary loan (ILL) fees for non-returnable items between BC ELN partner libraries. This decision was made after careful discussion and deliberation, and is yet another example of partner libraries banding together to find a mutually agreeable solution that will benefit BC’s students, educators, and researchers.

How was the decision made to eliminate ILL fees for non-returnables?

Back in 2006, BC ELN eliminated ILL transaction fees for returnables (e.g. books, media items), and since then the possibility of removing fees for non-returnables (e.g. articles) has been an active goal. The ILL landscape has changed a great deal over the past thirteen years. Among developments in British Columbia, sharing articles is no longer reliant on laborious processes of printing, faxing, and mailing items, the reSearcher software was sunset, and the Illume Interlibrary Loan Service managed by BC ELN has been optimized through the implementation of Canadian servers, privacy-compliant Patron-Initiated ILL, Live Shelf Status, and guest requesting.

At the December 2019 All Partner Meeting, BC ELN library directors agreed to move forward with eliminating fees for non-returnable items. In their discussions they raised a number of considerations that were then brought forward to the BC ELN Steering Committee. With these in mind, on December 6th, 2019 the Steering Committee endorsed a plan to remove the fees, with the understanding that the considerations surfaced at the All Partner Meeting would be addressed.

What are the next steps?

COVID-19 Update: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, timelines and activities for the elimination of ILL fees for non-returnable items have been adjusted.  The timeline below reflects these changes.

As of January 1st, 2020, ILL fees for non-returnable items between BC ELN partner libraries have been eliminated. The considerations raised at the All Partner Meeting will be addressed over the following year through four key activities:

  1. Develop Illume Service Benefits & Responsibilities to formalise expectations for institutions participating and partnering in Illume. These Benefits & Responsibilities would follow the same model as those used for other BC ELN services such as AskAway and Arca. They would include the expectation that participating institutions adhere to system best practices.
  2. Develop best practices for use of the Illume Service (e.g. best practices to clarify which workflows allow the system to load-balance requests optimally across the BC ELN resource sharing system).
  3. Investigate Illume software improvements to optimise load-levelling (e.g. building different system lender lists for different item types).
  4. Review after one year the impact of eliminating fees, system improvements, staff education, etc. BC ELN libraries will capture ILL statistics for an additional year to assist with assessment.

Implementation Timeline

Winter 2022/23

  • Collection of SHAREit statistics
  • Survey of ISO-target library statistics (eg. Relais)

Fall 2022

  • Share discussion and next steps with BC ELN partner libraries
  • Launch available vendor system enhancements/improvements
  • Exploration of the impact of eJournal MARC records/holdings missing from the BC Union Catalogue

Summer 2022

  • Comparison and assessment of collective statistics including ISO-target libaries
  • Assessment of Best Practices and identified additional Staff education opportunities for BC ELN libraries
  • Recommend system improvements

Spring 2022

  • Survey of ISO-target library statistics (eg. Relais)
  • ILL Policy pages made available for BC ELN libraries
  • Share discussion and next steps with BC ELN partner libraries

Winter 2021/22

  • Collection of SHAREit statistics
  • Launch Best Practices for ISO libraries

Fall 2021

  • Develop Best Practices for ISO libraries
  • Assessment of settings and preferred lender lists for SHAREit libraries and follow-up training

Summer 2021

  • Develop and deliver ILL staff education sessions based on best practices
  • Identify additional software enhancements and further optimizations and determine development timeline in consultation with vendor when appropriate
  • Share discussion and next steps with BC ELN partner libraries

Spring 2021

  • Develop Template for publishing ILL polices online
  • Update website with links to post-secondary ILL Policy pages
  • Continue analysis and discussion with partner libraries
  • Provide updates to BC ELN Steering Committee and partner libraries

Winter 2020/21

  • Finalize Illume Service Benefits & Responsibilities
  • Analyse 2019 institution-submitted ILL statistics with Illume software-generated statistics; identify load-balancing and ILL practice issues
  • Contact individual libraries to discuss load-balancing and ILL practices
  • Develop and Launch Illume Service Best Practices
  • Develop FAQs and share widely with BC ELN partner libraries via listservs

2020

  • Develop Illume Service Benefits & Responsibilities
  • Updates and announcements shared with BC ELN partner libraries and stakeholders; and published to Illume website https://illumebc.ca
  • Identify initial software enhancements and further optimizations and determine development timeline in consultation with vendor when appropriate