Why can't I Replace a lost item instead of paying the whole Replacement Fee?
I had a patron who lost one of the DVD’s in a DVD case that contained two DVDs. I purchased a new DVD containing both DVDs for $30.00 that I forwarded to the library as a replacement. A couple of weeks later, the library returned my brand-new DVD and said that they would like the money for the DVD not the actual DVD replacement. Then they charged my library $70.00. My question is: Why do the TRAC Operational Guidelines allow this to happen?
Answer
I can totally understand your frustration with having to pay such a steep fee for the lost item. I am going to do my best to answer your question about WHY TRAC guidelines allow for situations like yours to happen, as well as how you can hopefully live with it.
Why?
One of the values that TRAC embraces for its members is autonomy. Every library that is a member of Northern Lights, or any other TRAC library has the autonomy to make selections for their own collection without the interference of any other entity. That includes TRAC. If TRAC were to attempt to enforce a mandatory item replacement policy it would take away that autonomy from its members, and as a result, local collections would suffer. I can completely understand that being in the position of having to pay the lost item fee is quite a hit, but if the roles were reversed and you preferred to replace an older item with something newer, I believe you would appreciate having the right to make that decision for yourself.
How you can live with it, maybe.
Sometimes, when an item is older and has many, many, circulations a library might be willing to reduce or wave the replacement cost. It is never a bad idea to try to engage in negotiations, ESPECIALLY if you know that you, yourself, would be open to negotiating the replacement cost of your own items.
It is very simple to view the circulation history of an item in Leap, and that information can be very useful if you wish to suggest a negotiated price.
For instance,
I searched for the original item in question and here is what I found:
This item was two years old when it was lost.
This item had circulated 21 times in its lifetime—that is a lot for a DVD!
This item has not circulated in the past year to date. This would be because it was withdrawn in 2021, but if we had checked this stat sooner, perhaps it would have told us the same thing, in which case that’s more supportive reasons to negotiate the replacement cost.
There’s no guarantee a library will negotiate with you, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. I hope this helps.
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