I'm with Dale. The first thing is to make good on the ILL that your library borrowed. Various ILL codes state the the library is responsible for the item if it is lost or damaged - what you do with the patron who caused the loss or damage is between you and the patron. Waco has used muni court warrants in the past and found this method to be costly, time consuming and not all that effective. Also, talk about bad press think sensationalistic news stories about people being arrested for overdue library books - no thanks don't need that. Does your city may have a collection agency that they use for unpaid water bills? That may be your best route, though check on the cost of using them versus absorbing the cost of the item. On collection agencies, I have used them at both my current and previous library and found them to be an effective means of "encouraging" patrons to own up to their responsibility for unreturned items. While collection agencies can have a bad rap, Unique Management Services is a collection agency that specializes in serving libraries. They have been profiled in a number of national newspaper articles including the NYT and WSJ. Understanding our desire to maintain positive relations with our patrons and a good image, they use a somewhat soft touch with patrons - the first being a letter that is more of a reminder than a typical collection letter, then a phone call (a number of their employees are divinity/theology students from a nearby seminary) and finally reporting to credit bureaus. While dinging someone's credit report may seem harsh, it is effective (especially those who have moved away) at having them own up to their responsibility for the materials they borrowed from your library. James James A. Karney, Director Waco-McLennan County Library 1717 Austin Ave. ~ Waco, Texas 76701 254-750-5946 ~ Fax 254-750-5940
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of D Ricklefs Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 9:56 AM To: Laurie Mahaffey; 'ctls-l' Subject: Re: [ctls-l] FW: Library materials recovery Well, the first order of business, not the original question, is to pay for the lost items so the library isn't blocked from ILL. Same would be true for TexShare losses. That is the easier thing to do. We go through Municipal Court and file a warrant. Due to the costs to us (legal fees and costs of staff (library and court)) we don't do this until we hit $125 in lost materials (excluding fines). Otherwise, we chalk it up to the cost of doing business. All the warrant does though is that if someone is stopped and a check run, the warrant pops up. We have about 2 customers a month who get caught in warrant checks. They end up paying pretty hefty fees. To minimize such loss, we do ILL and TexShare for those who have had a card with us for at least 30 days. This minimizes the "impulse buy." Won't eliminate it completely, though. If this person is outside of your city limits, you need to talk to your attorney on the process that would hold up in Municipal or County Court. Bottom line, though, is to balance your costs for doing all of this vs. the loss. For us, getting legal involved is $150 an hour. Staff labor to file with Municipal Court, plus their labor costs, and the stiff fees (over ½ going to the state), makes this process costly to the library and the patron. Some libraries use collection agencies. I'm not sure that most of our popular lit is worth the bad press of collection agencies. If we were academic libraries with high dollar or rare items, it might be a different story. Dale Dale Ricklefs, Library Director Round Rock Public Library 216 E. Main Street, Round Rock, Texas 78664 512-218-7010; 218-7061 (fax); 669-1753 (cell); [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------------- Please note that our spam blocker blocks many emails, especially yahoo, gmail, and similar sites. You may get a "mailbox full" message. This means you have been blocked. Please call at one of the numbers above if you are having problems getting through. Thank you! From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Laurie Mahaffey Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 9:43 AM To: 'ctls-l' Subject: [ctls-l] FW: Library materials recovery How does your library handle materials recovery from patrons? If you can help out Marjorie, please respond. Thanks. Laurie _____ From: budalibrary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Library materials recovery I put the following situation to our Interim City Manager. She has asked me to get ideas about how other libraries handle this. Our new police force serves just City of Buda, even though they are technically part of the sheriff's department. " We have loaned ILL borrowed books (borrowed from another library) to a library user, who no longer answers the phone. She won't take our calls. User lives in Rolling Hills subdivision east of Buda, off FM 2001. Do we have any recourse to recover those items? Is there someone we can send to the home to recover the materials? We get blocked from using the Interlibrary Loan system. They have 2 titles: - Soul Obsession - we have been billed $ 18.99 for this book - One holy fire" Marjorie Martinez Buda Public Library P.O. Box 608 Buda, TX 78610 www.budalibrary.org
