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This article reports on a study of how long library patrons at 28 college and university libraries kept books checked out before and after a policy change allowing for longer circulation periods and more renewals. The behavior of most patrons remained similar before and after the policy change, with only a slight (7–14 day) lengthening of the length of circulation for many patrons. A significant minority of patrons made more extensive use of the longer loan periods, demonstrating the usefulness of the policy change for many users. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of North Texas Libraries provide extensive online access to academic journals through major vendor databases. As illustrated by interlibrary loan borrowing requests for items held in our databases, patrons often have difficulty navigating the available resources. In this study, the Interlibrary Loan staff used data gathered from the ILLiad interlibrary loan management system to investigate why patrons request locally available materials. This study resulted in recommendations for the Libraries' linking strategies in EBSCOhost databases. Several user education needs were identified and communicated to the Libraries' Subject Liaisons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a study of the policies that govern the use of the university library by external users at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and 12 peer institutions used by IUPUI for comparative purposes. A search of each institution's Web site was conducted as well as interviews with circulation librarians and managers. Although it was useful to learn of common practices, it was especially beneficial to learn about policies that differed substantially from those in place at comparable institutions. Creative solutions developed to address problems at other libraries can be used to influence policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Laptops have become ubiquitous in academic libraries, as has the practice of circulating laptops for student use. Several studies have analyzed the how-to of loaning laptops, and a number of surveys have focused on how they are being used. However, little has been written of the practical lessons learned; the trial and error of those on the frontlines in academic libraries. The pitfalls of wireless networks, battery life, high demand, and brutal usage make offering such a popular service challenging. The experiences of the University of Houston's M.D. Anderson Library, while possibly not typical, provide a snapshot of the pitfalls involved in making laptop circulation successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Interlibrary Loan department at the University of Mississippi wished to examine interlibrary loan borrowing data dating back to the implementation of the ILLiad system in August 2001 in order to determine why the number of cancellations due to local availability continues to increase. The patron information was extracted in an attempt to determine whether library instruction should be targeted to patrons according to status, department, database, or frequency of ILL use. All 88,376 article and loan requests from 3,975 users were examined for similarities among request cancellations. The authors found that the fastest-growing reason for cancellation of an ILL request is availability in the stacks. The surge began soon after several subscriptions were converted from paper to electronic format. That, plus fill rate data according to the citation source, suggests that the design of certain databases can be a strong indicator of whether a patron will venture beyond an originating database or submit an interlibrary loan, assuming their request is not owned locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes discussions on listservs. Topic covered are circulation policies regarding patrons from other colleges, the shelving of sacred books, laptop circulation, Ariel vs email attachment for interlibrary loan, best software for remote instruction, paper copies of ereserves, interlibrary loan privileges for alumni and policies regarding the loaning of new books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) serves a dispersed patron base, and its library has developed, over time, a circulation system for distributing physical research materials to its patrons throughout the United States. This article discusses the development of this system and its associated interface/database management system which links the disparate databases necessary for the processing and shipping of materials. Using the Object Oriented Programming language (OOP) Java, Unified Modeling Language (UML) and interface design techniques, a project team redesigned workflows, created a federated interface that is easy to use and streamlined the distance education circulation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Sampson-Livermore Library at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, began circulating laptops to its patrons. After a small pilot project, full-scale implementation occurred and the service proved to be very popular. Policies and procedures were adjusted at several steps along the way to accommodate lessons learned from the circulation desk. Sampson-Livermore Library now circulates laptops, iBooks, portable DVD players, and MP3 players, in addition to peripheral equipment. Circulation of library equipment has skyrocketed, as this has become one of the library's signature services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prompt return of checked out materials has been demanded by libraries for more than a century. Together with other measures such as overdue fines, library notices are used to bring in prompt returns by informing the users of their checked out items that will soon be due or are already overdue. The analysis of library notices sent in the past five years indicates courtesy notices that alert users of their soon-to-be-due items fail to improve prompt return significantly. On the other hand, sustaining the library notice service takes effort and cost. In this age of technology, prompt return may perhaps be viewed in a new perspective that serves the users and the library better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on discussions about library access services in the listserv CIRCPLUS. Stephanie Schulte, Circulation Services Manager at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa queried CIRCPLUS about the best way to handle long overdue accounts. One poster explained that as a librarian he enjoyed negotiating with patrons on the best way to resolve overdue situations. Lenora Ramsey-Johnston, Head of Circulation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, wanted to know about allowing patrons to place hold requests on items not checked out. Most posters stated that the best procedure to be followed would be for staff to go into the stacks and pull the books requested.

The article presents the challenges in the implementation and administration of interlibrary loans. It states that most researchers and library users ignore the use of indexes and another problem encountered is the case of incomplete bibliographical citations. Library users also keep on sending interlibrary loan request even if the material requested is already available in the library. Patrons also complain of requiring them to pick-up the item they ordered online. It also mentions the problem to be encountered when publishers raise their copyright fees in the future.

Today's sophisticated circulation services and circulation policies, together with the ease of disseminating data in the Information Era, pose challenges to libraries. Library users are expected to be informed in advance of the policies they are supposed to observe when using the circulation services, instead of being told after the occurrence of an incident that they have not followed the policies and thus need to bear the consequences. User education can no longer be restricted to bibliographic instruction in its traditional sense but should cover circulation policies as well. User education on circulation policies needs to be concerted, well planned, and innovative. Some approaches to user education on circulation policies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]