Proxy Borrowing

Department:

Interlibrary Loan

Rev. June 2009

Purpose:

This procedure describes how we will implement our Proxy Borrowing policy

Overview:

Proxy accounts are available to faculty who employ assistants who help them place interlibrary loan requests (assistants hereafter referred to as proxy borrowers). This allows the proxy borrowers to request items for faculty members without 1) the faculty member having to share his/her VU username and password with the proxy borrower or 2) the proxy borrower having to request items for the faculty member on the proxy borrower's personal account. The proxy borrower account is the ONLY authorized way for one patron to borrow items on behalf of another patron.

Required Knowledge/Skills:

Knowledge of ILLIAD

Equipment/Supplies: 

Networked PC loaded with the above software.

Procedure

1. Patrons wanting to apply for a proxy borrower’s account will fill out a form on our website (http://www.valpo.edu/library/ill/proxyborrower.php) which is e-mailed to ill@valpo.edu

2. Assuming the request meets all of the guidelines normally required for an ILL account (no outstanding fines in regular library account, current VU affiliate, etc), the Interlibrary Loan Manager (ILLM) will enter the information from the form into ILLiad manually using the “Add New User” option.

3. Proxy borrower account usernames will be standardized. The username will be the faculty member's LDAP username with "proxy" appended to the end. Examples include rconnellproxy or rbyrumproxy, etc. If the ILLM is not sure what someone's LDAP is, an educated guess will suffice.

4. Make sure to check "ILLiad authentication" at the bottom right of the customer information screen when creating the account.

5. Make the expiration date the end of the current academic year, ex. 6/30/2025.

6. Once the account has been approved and created, the ILLM will send an e-mail to both the faculty member and their proxy borrower with the username/password and other basic proxy information such as the faculty member is responsible for all charges incurred.

7. After the account is created, no maintenance is needed unless the account expires and the faculty member or proxy borrower contacts the ILL office and says they need an extension. In this case, extend the account until the end of the next academic year and then contact both parties to let them know about the account extension.