Exceeded my inter library loan allowance!!!

elisebutt65

Just got an email from our Uni library that I have exceeded the number of interlibrary loans - 10!!!!

Flipping heck - this is the 1st I've heard of a limit and 10!! How pitiful is this!! I'm only halfway through my dissertation and haven't even started my 2nd Semester yet either!!!!

my dissertation requires a lot of older journals as I'm doing a history if technology and the tourism industry - it's not until the latter chapters that I need the stuff I can access online - the more uptodate stuff!!!!

I'm stuffed if my lecturer doesn't approve me to get any more - either that or I'll be getting my mates - who never request them - to do it for me!!

And we have to pay for them anyway, so why is there a limit???!!!!

Really peed off now!!!:mad:

studentphil

If it is anything like my place then they will not increase loan limits as I did try.

Could you not request photocopies of articles through document supply rather than inter loan? That would not eat into your allowance then.

melancholly

i have never heard of limits for these because as you say, you pay for them yourself! nuts! if there is anything you really need, you could try posting for things on here because some journals have really good backfiles if you have a subscription (i think the best i did was a 1909 one online!).

elisebutt65

I do only ever get photocopies!!!!

If they can't get the copies then they will borrow the whole journal for me but that's only ever happened twice in the 3 years I've been there!!!

My dissertation tutor has done a big no-no and 'lent' me his Athens password so I can get onto a a whole lot more journals than usual but once they've expired on Athens then I need a p/copy really.

I may try posting on here but some are quite specialised as I'm doing a tourism degree - one of the so-called made up ones - LOL Bloody hard for a made up degree tho'!!!! Starting Strategic Management next semester and i am soooo dreading it!

melancholly

can your library not give you an athens password? i definitely had one as an undergraduate. sounds entirely unfair - send an email to your course rep to bring it up at their next meeting with staff. if you pay for ILL then it's stupid to restrict the number to 10 - 95% of undergrads won't even use any!

elisebutt65

melancholly wrote:

can your library not give you an athens password? i definitely had one as an undergraduate. sounds entirely unfair - send an email to your course rep to bring it up at their next meeting with staff. if you pay for ILL then it's stupid to restrict the number to 10 - 95% of undergrads won't even use any!

I got Athens accessibility but some of the journals are older thatn what our subscription allows so I have to order copies of the articles I need.

Agree - NONE of my classmates ever use this facility so it really pees me off!!!!! I did a quick straw poll to see if anyone did and also if they knew of the limit - no-one did

saintstreaky

I suspect the charge doesn't cover the whole cost of the ILL, which is why there is still a limit. They cost more than you might think.

However, I would lodge a strong complaint about lack of information, maybe via your course rep. Check the website and relevant booklets first, but if they haven't told you anything you have a justifiable case for an increased allowance. Bear in mind that students are often given lots of information at the start of the year that gets forgotten!

eryn_kathleen

I'm at Edinburgh, and we pay £4 per ILL. I've exceeded my limit as well, and if I order one through them I should have to pay full whack (which is around £12-13). To be fair, my ILL allowance was much larger than yours!

You might try using British Library direct, although they'll be in the £10 range as well. The BL had a sale in October - any direct download for about £3 - but I don't know when they'll do that again.

What course are you doing? You might have luck on https://www.abebooks.co.uk - they seem to do a lot of journal offprints, which are generally in the £3-5 range. There are loads of them for archaeology, but I've not had a look for other subjects.

Finally, you should definitely complain through whatever channels are open to you. I did that at Edinburgh, arguing that they shouldn't have accepted me as a PhD student without the appropriate library materials, which are part of the student-institution agreement. I got a small 'extension' on my ILL allowance - not enough to carry my through, but it did help a little bit.

elisebutt65

All is OK now.

I went and threw a 'wobbly' and my year tutor and dissertation tutor have got my limit increased to 'unlimited' Whoohoo!!! Turns out I'm the only one in my year group who actually uses the service anyway so massive budget going spare!!

Yeah and apparently it cost the library £6 per journal request but the charge to us is only £1.0 What is annoying sometimes is that I get the whole journal and have to return it after 2 weeks so incur p/copying costs myself but other times they give me the p/copy of the relevant article to keep - weird and not very consistent.

Just happy that I can now progress with my dissertation.

melancholly

elisebutt65 wrote:

All is OK now.

I went and threw a 'wobbly' and my year tutor and dissertation tutor have got my limit increased to 'unlimited' Whoohoo!!!

nothing like throwing toys out of pram! sadly it's often the only way to get things done - hope the dissertation is a work of literary genius!!

pjb007

I think its 10 here as well.

One thing I did when I started at Uni was to join the local county library service which students can do, why not see if some of the books you currently have from your uni library are also in the county library and borrow them from there.