2-2 MOBIUS Patron Initiated Circulation Policy
Developed by
MOBIUS Access Advisory Group
Date Adopted
Revision Dates
Purpose of the Policy
To provide an overview of Patron Initiated Circulation for MOBIUS.
Policy Type
Circulation
Original Policy Document
- Types of materials available for loan – monographs are the only item type available through MOBIUS patron initiated borrowing.
- Loan length - 21 days for all patron types.The only exception is an extended loan period of 120 days for materials lent between Saint Louis University (SLU) and MERLIN for graduate students, staff and faculty patrons. This arrangement was pre-existing from when SLU was part of MERLIN. The extended loan period does not affect the loan periods for other libraries in MOBIUS or loans between SLU and MERLIN to undergraduate patrons.
- Time held for Pickup – 10 days or less. Each library determines how long to hold. MOBIUS books for patrons to pickup, not to exceed 10 days.
- Renewals - Items with additional holds may not be renewed. Two renewals of 21 days are allowed. The only exception is an extended loan period for Saint Louis University (SLU) and MERLIN which permits two renewals of 120 days. First and second renewals for direct patron borrowing can be accomplished at the patron’s home library or online by the patron, but not at the loaning library. Third renewals are not allowed. Executing a third renewal can result in the item being overdue at the owning library and appearing on the Returned Too Long problem report, even though the renewal seems to be valid on the patron’s local system. The book must be returned to the owning library and may be re-requested.
- Recalls - Materials may only be recalled by the owning library, and may be recalled from any patron type. Minimum Use: 20 days
- Reserve - Materials borrowed through MOBIUS may not be placed on reserve at the borrowing institution.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL) – For monographs patrons should be strongly encouraged to use MOBIUS patron initiated borrowing instead of traditional ILL.
- Patron records - Complete patron records are available only in the home cluster of the patron. Only authorized staff at the patron's home library may change, update or enter patron records for their borrowers. Only staff at the home library may override blocks for their patrons.
- Load balancing - A load balancing table is in the INN-Reach server, an attempt will be made to balance lending and borrowing over the course of time at each institution. The patron will not be able to designate which copy is to be borrowed unless the title has one or more volumes attached to it.
- Materials Available locally - If a title is requested through MOBIUS and it is available locally, the system will choose the local item.
- Availability of Materials - Coding in local records in a cluster should accurately reflect whether or not the item is requestable.
- MOBIUS loan rules - MOBIUS loan rules should not be overridden to permit longer loans than originally allowed, either by extending loan periods or checking in and checking out again.
- Patron status - Each institution determines who in its patron database will receive MOBIUS faculty, staff or student status. Each institution accepts responsibility for material borrowed by any person it has authorized to borrow through the MOBIUS system.
- Charges - A lost book replacement charge of $120 will be billed to patrons who do not return MOBIUS items 45 days after the due date. This includes a $100 lost book fee and $20 non-refundable billing fee. The patron's home library may keep the monies collected for the billing fee only when books are returned; the owning library will get all monies collected for replacement costs of lost books.
- Identification - An institutional photo I.D. is the preferred identification to check out materials as a Visiting Patron. An institutional ID number (written or verbal) plus a driver's license or other official photo ID will also be acceptable.
- Book Bands - All MOBIUS (INN-Reach) book bands will be printed on green paper using the template(s) provided on the MOBIUS website: http://mobiusconsortium.org/bookbands