Fines, Fees, and Reimbursements: Policy Overview

These policies were developed through Orbis Borrowing Committee discussions 1996-2002. Several recurring themes and other factors that have influenced development of these policies include:

• responsibilities and opportunities of consortium activity;
• union catalog software capabilities and limitations;
• varying institution policies; er
• benefit derived from a work activity compared to the local or central resources required to support it; and
• relevant policies approved by Orbis Council.

See Annual Account Reconciliation for a complete explanation of process for identifying and reporting lost and irreparably damaged items for reimbursement from borrowing institutions, and other tips (claims returned, items returned after billing, RTL's, etc.).

1. Fines

Individual institutions no longer keep track of Summit Borrowing fines. There will be no annual accounting reconciliation or re-apportioning of money. This includes overdue fines for items eventually billed as lost.

2. Fees

Fees will be counted for all items declared as lost and items irreparably damaged. We continue to use the single standard replacement fee and administrative fee (service charge). See Summit Borrowing, Interlibrary Loan, and On-site Borrowing Policy for more information about replacement fees.

3. Waiving and refunding fees

Annual Account Reconciliation includes all items lost or irreparably damaged. Individual member institutions may have various local policies on waiving patron fines or fees or refunding money, entirely, or for materials returned within a certain time period. The Consortium's agreements do not supersede those local policies, nor do the local policies impact the Annual Account Reconciliation for inter-institution reimbursement.

4. Damaged materials

Unless an item is irreparably damaged, it will be repaired at the owning site, without special accounting or attempt to recover cost of repair from borrowing institution (patron site).

5. Replacement copy

A replacement copy may be supplied in lieu of paying Replacement Charge, on an individual, case-by-case basis, and only with explicit approval of the Owning Site.

6. Annual account reconciliation and Reimbursement

Items lost and irreparably damaged are the only items for which members keep records and submit information for annual account reconciliation. The accounting period begins in the spring, allowing several months to wrap-up notices and billings and process items returned late before the reimbursement process begins. To facilitate record keeping, the members have adopted an additional "overdue notice" for institution book-keeping and notification; this notice is not sent to patrons. The annual account reconciliation process is in the summer: members report information to Alliance staff; Alliance compiles records, posts information and coordinates reimbursement. See Annual Account Reconciliation for detailed schedule of activities and procecures.

7. Items already billed

When an item is returned after it has been billed, regardless of whether the patron paid fees or the institution refunded fees, the item is returned to the owning institution.

8. Responsibility for items loaned through Summit Borrowing

(Owning and Borrowing sites)

Owning Site is responsible for the item until it is checked in at Borrowing Site, i.e. through paging, Institution Checkout and in transit to Borrowing Site. Borrowing Site is responsible until it has been returned and checked in at the Owning Site (i.e. while it is checked in at the Borrowing Institution, on the hold shelf, checked out to patron, checked in from patron, and in transit during return to Owning Site). Institutions may seek reimbursement from patrons or courier as appropriate. Note that courier claims are made by the Owning Site, so the institutions may need to coordinate reimbursement internally.

updated: December 20, 2007