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INTERLENDING AND DOCUMENT SUPPLY POLICY

The University of Namibia Library provides an interlending and document supply service to staff and postgraduate students of the institution, by obtaining photocopies, books and/or micro material not available in the Library, from other institutions in southern Africa, as well as worldwide.

On the same principle, the Interlending and Document Supply Section of the Library provides photocopies, books and/or micro material to other institutions in southern Africa and worldwide.

On-line request forms:
Books
Articles

Who qualifies for Interlending?

The Interlending and Document Supply Section in the Library renders services to staff and registered postgraduate students of the University of Namibia.

Undergraduate students are allowed to interlending transactions if their lecturers sign the requests.

All members of the southern African Interlending system (SABINET) as well as any library outside the region wishing to make use of this service, will be provided, where available, with requested material.

Students registered with other southern African libraries are allowed to use the services of the Interlending and Document Supply Section at a fee, which will include handling and postal fees of N$50 plus photocopy fees if the request is an article. This amount is subject to change

How to submit requests

Request forms are available at the Interlending desk on the main floor. Alternatively, requests may also be submitted via e-mail by completing the electronic forms for Books or for Journals.

Namibian libraries that are not members of the Southern African Interlending network should use the printed Interlending forms distributed by the National Library of Namibia for Namibian Libraries, or the National Library of South Africa in Pretoria for southern African libraries.

How long will delivery take?

Requests are processed as soon as possible. The Interlending and Document Supply Section aims to obtain material within 21 days and provide material to other institutions within 3 days.

Are there any limits to what can be obtained?

Rare books, special collections material, audio-visual materials, optical and magnetic media, genealogical materials, reference works and entire issues of journals are not readily available through interlending. Often it is possible to obtain photocopies of these documents. This is, however, subject to the Copyright Law of South Africa and the Copyright Law of Namibia, which does not allow copies of more than one article from a single issue, or no more than 10% of the specific number to be made for the same customer.
Requests for best-seller fiction will not be handled by the Interlending and Document Supply Section.

How many requests may be submitted?

Each staff member will receive a credit of 40 requests per calendar year and costs will be covered by the Library's interlending budget.

For requests made over and above this amount the applicant will be charged according to the SABINET=s tariffs (see next paragraph) which could be changed without prior notice.

Postgraduate students are allowed up to 20 requests per annum after which they will be charged accordingly.

What are the costs involved?

Users are not charged if requests are kept within preset limits. Extra requests will be charged as follows according to the tariff structure laid down by the National Library of South Africa or any other document Supply service the Library subscribes to. If items are requested by courier the additional costs have to be paid by the client.

Book request (southern Africa) : N$25.00
Article request (southern Africa)
Photocopies of 1-15 pages: N$25.00
Photocopies of 16-30 pages: N$37.50
Fax of article: N$37.50
Couriered item: N$50.00
Book request (overseas) : N$80.00
Article request (overseas) : N$120.00

Borrowed books that are lost or damaged by users have to be paid according to standard interlending rules.

What is the loan period?

Loan periods vary according to the supplying libraries' policies. Generally a user can expect to have the use of a book for a period of between 2 and 4 weeks. International loans are generally available to the user for a few days only.

Renewals of requests are usually allowed by lending libraries. Interlending staff should be notified of the intention to renew at least three days in advance of the due date.

When supplying documents to other libraries within the southern African region, the Library grants a loan period of 4 weeks with a maximum loan period of 2 months. International loans are sent out for 2 months with a maximum of 3 months.

To whom must the material be returned?

All materials (except photocopies) obtained from and/or through the Library's Interlending and Document Supply Section must be returned to that Section either personally or by means of registered or insured mail.

The user is responsible to return the materials in time.

How are interlending requests conducted?

Requests to and from other institutions are sent online, using systems like SABINET or British Library Document Supply Centre. Fax and mail options are available for those institutions which do not have online access.

Requested material can be mailed, couriered, faxed and/or sent via Ariel. Ariel is an electronic document transmission system designed by the Research Libraries Group in the US, which provides document supply over the Internet, integrating scanning, sending, receiving, and printing.

Is there any order of preference for requests?

Namibian libraries are the first choice when requesting material. As most of them are not online yet and their catalogues not freely accessible, the next choice will be South African university libraries because of a free supply agreement signed by University librarians of the region. If those two possibilities fail, any other library in the region with a holding statement of the requested item/s will be contacted and only as a last resort will overseas services be used.

Record of transactions as well as income and expenditure is kept.

What happens if material is not collected?

Material that is not collected within 5 working days after notification will be returned. If this incident is reported more than twice for the same client, continuing service for that individual will be ceased.