From the 1st August 2013 the British Library will once again be increasing their charges for Inter Library Loans (ILLs). We have been subsidising this service for several years and this annual increase has reached a stage where we are now unable to afford to maintain this subsidy. Alongside this other lending libraries will be raising their prices in line with the British Library meaning also increased charges for borrowing from elsewhere.
So in consequence we are now forced to raise our charge for ILLs for the first time in five years.
We have decided to have a two year staged increase in pricing in order to try and minimise the impact on our users, so from 1st August 2013 we will increase our charge to £10.50 per ILL request and £5.00 per renewal. Then in Summer 2014 the price will again rise to £12.50 to take us in line with British Library charging. Subsequently it will rise incrementally in line with BL pricing.
We also want to draw your attention to the upcoming trial during the Summer of a new online ILL request service. This will make it possible to order and pay for your ILLs without visiting the library in person, and (in the case of articles) to have them delivered electronically to your desktop. We hope that this will offer a much easier and higher quality service to our users, particularly distance learners and researchers.
If you have any questions or feedback then please contact Carol Giles