At this meeting we continued the discussion of marketing interlibrary loan and advocacy for the service. There was a brainstorming session for some of the best places to market this service, which included:
- Laundromats
- Recycling center/dump/transfer station
- Coffee shops / cafes
- Farmers Markets (Bennington goes every month and brings an activity)
- Signs posted around town and within the library
- Mailings with municipal bills
- New patron packet at library card sign up
- Mention ILL and postage in a yearly appeal letter (one library mentioned this specifically and received nearly $1,000 more than the previous year).
The discussion centered around trying to draw in those who are not already regular library users, and how to reassure patrons that think they are being a bother that they are, in fact, not being a bother. Kim at Hartness Library mentioned a slogan that I now want to put on a bumper sticker: Save a library by using a library.
I showed the posters that I created to encourage patrons to ask about Interlibrary Loan, and they are posted in the Google Drive here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q1wvq2Mob3ZIm5Rt_XBmQds2-F0xM9zf. Additionally I have just added the same posters, but with fillable fields so that you can add in your library logo and contact information. We also now have the “ILL Brag Book” to add anecdotes and good feedback about interlibrary loan to as a source to draw from when talking about the value of interlibrary loan. Everyone can view and add to this using this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18WLBc9DMD2zsIk47nrCIDWf8ktjR-gLixtSQg8tKLyw/edit?usp=sharing
We had a brief discussion about the Vermont ILL Code and how to start discussions about updating it (it was last updated in 2002). The group is now tasked with reading the code and noting what they think should be updated or changed. In the meantime, I will be reaching out to VLA to start talks about how to begin the process of updating.
There was also a brief discussion about loaning DVDs, who loans them, who does not and why. Most of the meeting attendees said that they do loan DVDs because the replacement costs are no longer as high as they once were.
There was a brief discussion about what to do if you receive an interlibrary loan that you did not request. If you do receive an ILL that you did not request, please either contact the owning library (if there is an ownership stamp), or reach out to me to see if we can get this item to its destination as soon as possible.
Finally, it was mentioned to me after the meeting that occasionally article requests are sent out to libraries when the article is found for free in the Vermont Online Library (www.vtonlinelib.org). Please, before sending article requests for interlibrary loan, just check to see if the article is available through the VOL.