ILL Fees

Optimisations to Illume in 2015 resulted in changes to system load balancing. This is generating some questions about how ILL requests are being routed to partner academic libraries that charge public libraries for ILLs. Here are some clarifications on fees and tips for public libraries to change how this is handled!

ILL Fees for BC ELN Libraries & Public Libraries

Please Note: Charges are the responsibility of the borrowing library. InterLINK federation member libraries have their loan charges for UBC and SFU paid for by InterLINK. Some libraries also have reciprocal lending agreements in place with UBC, SFU, and/or UVic. In cases where reciprocal agreements have been setup, the charges outlined below may not apply.

*BC ELN Libraries eliminated the Copies fee between post-secondary libraries in 2020.
**UBC charges an additional $5.00 for Book renewals.

Background & Tips

• BC ELN Libraries: In 2020, BC ELN libraries are moving forward with the elimination of interlibrary loan (ILL) fees for non-returnable items between BC ELN partner libraries. For more information including a timeline check-out the BC ELN page here: https://bceln.ca/services/resource-sharing/elimination-ill-fees-non-returnable-items
• Non-Illume Libraries: Since the outset of Illume's implementation partners UBC, SFU and UVic have not used Illume for ILL management and therefore have made their own decisions about lending charges. They currently charge $5.00 per item for interlibrary loans to public libraries, unless other reciprocal lending agreements are in place (EG. InterLINK currently pays the UBC & SFU charges for InterLINK libraries).
• Building the Lender String: Illume ERTI smart-builds [PDF] the lender string by checking for all possible lenders in the union databases and from all available Z39.50 search targets. It then looks at your library's Preferred Lender list first, and the System-Wide Lender list second, to order the lenders (SFU, UBC and UVic are ordered last unless you change this on your Preferred lender list). New! As of March 15, 2017 it now also checks your Blocked Lenders list for codes you may wish to block from automatic lender list builds.
• If Automatic Approval is turned-off, it will move the request into "Awaiting Approval" for ILL staff to manually add/delete lenders. If Automatic Approval is activated it will immediately forward the request to the first library in the lender string (and to Unfilled if the lender string is empty). Contact us for additional suggestions if you have Automatic Approval turned-on.
• Changing How Lenders are Added to the Lender List: There are now three options for libraries that wish to change how certain lenders are added to their lender string.
  1. Recommended: Update your Blocked Lenders List located under Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin > Participant Record > Blocked Lenders to include any library codes (eg. BVAU, BVAS, or BVIV) that you may wish to block from the ERTI smart-build automatic lender list builds. This allows you to continue having charging libraries available as search targets but avoid accidental fees. Requests will only be routed to library codes listed in your Blocked Lenders settings by Staff using a Blank Request form and manually adding the code to the request lender list build before approving. For example add their code, days to respond and optional call number (EG. add "BVIV,4,HV6275.F45 1999" to the lender string) to route a request to UVic. More information in our FAQ here: https://illumebc.ca/faq-blocked-lenders
  2. Manually remove SFU (BVAS), UBC (BVAU and BKU) and/or UVic (BVIV and BVVL) as Lenders from the request's lender string before you submit it. If all the non-charging libraries are unable to fill the request you could then add the charging libraries on Retry. This would allow you a chance to contact your Patron to confirm the charge.
  3. Remove SFU, UBC and UVic as available Z39.50 search targets for ILL staff. If those search targets are removed you wouldn't have to worry about accidental requests to those libraries but they also wouldn't be available for searching. If you did want to send a request to those charging libraries you'd have to manually add them as a lender. Now that the Blocked Lender list option is available instead, we only recommend removing these search targets if you never request from them and want to reduce the Search Resource clutter displayed to patrons/staff.
  4. Request Notes Field: While some libraries use notes to indicate charge information, most ISO libraries have difficulties reading these notes in their systems so it's not currently recommended as an option.
  5. Questions? Need help updating your Blocked Lender list, Search Resources/Targets or account Automatic Approval? Please contact us if you'd like some assistance or have additional questions, concerns or suggestions on this issue!