Complete

Complete the request.

Wrap up payment, copyright clearance and recordkeeping to finally complete each borrowing request.

1. Pay for the loan.

There are several ways to pay borrowing fees:

• IFM
  OCLC suppliers will want to use OCLC's ILL Fee Management Service (IFM). Using IFM allows you to fold charges for loans into your OCLC bill and eliminates the need to receive, track and pay invoices for each loan. Many libraries charge more to send an invoice because they prefer to accept fees through IFM. OCLC also provides a downloadable report each month so you can track how much you spend via IFM.
• Invoices
  Many libraries still send invoices. You may want to privilege lenders that accept IFM over lenders who invoice for charges. You will want to record the charges for each loan in your paperwork or IMS before forwarding the invoice to accounts payable for payment.
• IFLA vouchers
  International lenders often accept IFLA vouchers for payment. This eliminates the need to pay their invoice in a foreign currency. IFLA vouchers are available through IFLA, and come in half and whole.

2. Track copyright.

Libraries follow the CONTU guidelines for copying for interlibrary loan. Most ILL management software will track copyright compliance for you. Some libraries choose to pay annually; others pay monthly. Many libraries use the Copyright Clearance Center to make the permissions process easier.

3. Keep statistics.

There are many things to track in ILL that help you gauge the performance of your borrowing office, such as:

• Number of items requested
• Number of items received
• Fill rate
• Turnaround time
• Number of requests found on site
• Items lost/billed
• IFM/other costs for loans
• Method of requesting

OCLC provides management statistics reports online (http://www.stats.oclc.org/cusp/nav), and most management software has built in queries to track these areas.

4. Communicate with collection development.

Make sure subject selectors at your library know what and how much your patrons borrow, and who those patrons are (by department and status). This helps them identify titles they may want to add to the collection and perceived gaps in the collection.

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