Costs associated with Interlibrary Loan
The library underwrites interlibrary loan costs for all students, faculty, and staff at Western. However, the cost of interlibrary loan has increased dramatically in the last few years and the library may not be able to sustain the current costs. The library may be forced to implement limits and/or fees for ILL in the future.
| Year | Fees Paid to Lenders | Copyright Royalties Paid | Total For Year |
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| 2000 | $14,812.56 | $1804.86 | $16,617.42 |
| 2001 | $12,981.83 | $ 5572.17 | $18,554.00 |
| 2002 | $15,578.65 | $10,745.02 | $26,323.67 |
| 2003 | $17,928.42 | $ 25,449.15 | $ 43,377.57
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| 2004 thru Oct. | $16,103.84 | $31,743.64 | $47,847.48*
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* Jan thru Oct.
What can you do to help?
Only order what you really need. Every month there are at least 50 articles
requested, retrieved and paid for by the library, yet never picked up or used by the person who requested the item. This is about 10% of all requests made. If these types of wasteful requests were eliminated, the library would see a 10% savings right off the bat!
Save time by reading the abstract. Reading an abstract takes about 2 minutes. Submitting an ILL request, then picking up/downloading and viewing an article you weren't really interested in takes 10-30 minutes.
Consult with staff at the reference desk about other resources that might fit your needs before ordering articles on ILLiad Interlibrary Loan. These include but are not limited to: specialized encyclopedias, books we own, books you can borrow through Summit, videos, full-text databases (such as ProQuest, JSTOR, and Contemporary Women’s Issues), and authoritative web sites.
How does the library work to keep these costs down?
- Borrowing Charges: We participate in agreements which give us access to thousands of libraries who agree to provide service at no charge as long as we reciprocate.
- Copyright Royalties: There is no way to directly reduce copyright royalties on a per request basis other than simply not filling the request if it will incur a royalty charge. Western Libraries has added many full-text journal subscriptions and other resources to broaden what is available from our own collections and make access more convenient - especially to those off campus.
How are costs incurred for interlibrary loan transactions?
In addition to staff, equipment, network costs, etc., there are direct costs associated with some ILL requests. These costs are generally a lending fee paid to the supplying library and/or royalty payments paid for journal articles which exceed what we are entitled to under the Fair Use provision of federal copyright regulations. We participate in agreements which give us access to thousands of libraries who agree to provide service at no charge as long as we reciprocate. This does not, however, negate our responsibilities for copyright costs.
How much is the typical copyright royalty?
Some publishers charge a royalty per article and those fees typically range as high as $35.00 but can go higher. Some charge by the page and this type of charge can range as high as $5.00 per page. Currently the average royalty we pay is $24.77 per article which is up from $15.12 in 2000.
When is royalty payment required?
Copyright Royalties for ILL are typically paid when a library requests more than 5 articles from a particular journal or magazine during a calendar year, AND those articles are from issues of the journal published during the last 5 years. This is tracked from January thru December each year with a clean slate each January 1.
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