The Case for a 60-Day Interlibrary Loan Lending Period

Abstract

This article looks at standardizing the loan period among 16 higher academic institutions in the state of Florida. A standardized loan period became a topic of conversation during the creation of a new resource sharing service. The resulting discussion led to a critical look at loan periods for all resource sharing activities.

The Florida State Libraries Resource Sharing Initiative: Did the Predictions Pan Out?

“…The lending library would determine whether or not to approve the request and send their response, which would then be transmitted back to the patron. This excess of processing, spurred discussion in the group on whether to extend the standard loan period from 30 to 60 days (Shrauger, Radnor, & Schmidt, 2012). A longer loan period would result in fewer renewal requests made by patrons and thus less work.…”