I-Share Standardized Universal Borrowing Policies Effective August 4, 2010

On August 4, 2010, CARLI implemented changes to standardize the policies that apply to I-Share Universal Borrowing (UB) activity. “Universal Borrowing” is the Voyager module that supports interlibrary resource sharing among the 76 I-Share libraries. Any time an I-Share library patron requests or borrows an item from an I-Share library other than their “home” library, Universal Borrowing policies are invoked.

The common policies that have been implemented provide all UB-eligible borrowers a standard 4-week UB loan period for the items that I-Share libraries make available through UB. Up to three 4-week renewals are allowed unless a UB item is recalled or considered lost. UB overdue notices will be generated on a common schedule and will include a “courtesy” notice sent to the patron 7 days in advance of a due date to encourage their prompt attention to these materials. The standard policies also include a common 29-day timeframe for overdue UB items to be considered lost.

The concept of consortium-wide standard policies for resource sharing is not new. Many large consortia, including OhioLINK, Orbis/Cascade, and Georgia’s GIL (GALILEO Interconnected Libraries) have operated under common policies for years. CARLI’s resource sharing program predates these programs and its tradition of the home library’s policies prevailing was established, in part, due to some of the limitations of the consortium’s first shared system, LCS, which began supporting consortial resource sharing in 1980. The CARLI consortium has been working towards this goal for the past several years under a project coordinated by the Board’s Resource Sharing Task Force, whose vision statement has been: Maximum Access/Minimum Barriers.

CARLI has not implemented any automatic UB blocks at this time. Automatic blocks are intended to suspend the UB privileges of patrons when they reach certain thresholds such as having a set number of UB items overdue or lost. The original specification for this project included six different automatic UB blocking conditions, but shortly before implementation, library staff preparing for the change by reviewing “block preview” reports prepared by CARLI, reported some patrons being inappropriately identified as having reached a blocking threshold. CARLI staff are actively investigating this problem. Ex Libris fixed a different problem with similar symptoms more than a year ago. The current problem has the same effect of incorrectly blocking valid patrons, but the new problem appears to be intermittent and we have not yet determined what events trigger it. Library staff may continue to manually block patrons as needed until automatic blocks can be safely deployed. CARLI has a “Best Practices” document on using patron blocks in I-Share.

The UB setting changes were made through a batch process by CARLI Office staff and were implemented for all I-Share libraries simultaneously on August 4. Policies relating to local circulation, that is, a library circulating its own items to its own patrons were not changed and are still set as the library determines.

The UB policy changes are summarized in full at the end of I-Share Library Resource Sharing Code.  Read the detailed memo for background for the new policies and links to other related resources.

We extend our thanks to all who participate in I-Share resource sharing. Thanks also to all who served on the Resource Sharing Task Force and to those who have served on other CARLI bodies that have contributed to the planning for this change. The new policies will, along with the improved delivery service, provide consistent, predictable resource sharing services among the 76 I-Share libraries, helping to provide our library patrons Maximum Access and Minimum Barriers.

As always, please contact the CARLI Office with any questions or problem reports.