Kudzu-Ops Mailing List: Update/Vote -- Lanter contract renewal

[John Burger (jburger]

Kudzu Friends:

I've been working with a small group of Kudzu librarians (Judy Greenwood / Ole 
Miss, Cathy Griffin & Gaylor Callahan / UNC Greensboro) to review /renegotiate 
our contract with Lanter Delivery Systems to provide ILL deliveries between 
participating libraries.  (Those libraries are: Auburn University, Clemson 
University, Mississippi State University, Tulane University, University of 
Alabama, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, University of North 
Carolina at Greensboro, University of Miami, University of Memphis, University 
of Mississippi, University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee, 
Vanderbilt University, and Wake Forest University.)

As you probably know, we have seen some service hiccups on and off during the 
life of this contract.  From what I can tell they are relatively infrequent, 
but when they happen they are quite upsetting to the normal flow of operations 
and bad for patron service at the affected libraries.  To help resolve these 
problems and to provide better on-time tracking information, Lanter has 
committed to implementing point-to-point barcode scanning of all our items & 
location no later than October 1, 2014.  We are hopeful that this new 
technology will alleviate (nearly) all problems we have experienced with 
missing/lost items.

The other big issue on the table was Lanter's liability for items they lose or 
damage.  Our current contract limits their payout for lost/damaged items to 
$100/container - no matter how many items are in the bag/pouch/box, Lanter is 
currently only obligated to pay a maximum of $100 per container.  As a result, 
we have urged librarians to ship fewer items using more containers to help keep 
potential losses within this limit.  Still, we have seen a few libraries that 
have lost money over time for lost/damaged items that exceed this cap.

We pushed for "full replacement value" in the new contract but Lanter would not 
agree to this.  Instead they are willing to raise the liability limit to 
$200/bag, which I believe  would cover the vast majority of shipments.  If we 
wanted to use this option, Lanter's fees for the coming year would include a 3% 
price increase (approx. $300/library for the coming year) followed by 1% annual 
increases for the remainder of the contract.  Our fallback option is to keep 
the $100 liability limit, which would result in a 1% fee increase for the 
coming year (approx. $100/library) and 1% increases for each year after that.

(Either way, our librarians and student workers would still need to be wary of 
this limit and package items accordingly.  I have recently heard of a "big box 
of returned books" sent at the end of the semester that is currently Missing In 
Action.  While it is tempting to send everything going to a single library in a 
single box, doing so could result in a financial risk.)

**  PLEASE VOTE  ** Kudzu-Lanter Sites:  Please indicate which option seems 
preferable for your library, using this poll:  
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LPWNHSV no later than Aug 15. 

Attached is the current draft of the contract if you want to read the fine 
print.  It includes a number of other points that we feel will improve service, 
but the two items above are the "biggies" in my estimation.

Please let me know any questions or concerns.  Many thanks for your thoughtful 
consideration of this matter.


--jeb

John Burger, Executive Director
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries
   ASERL
   c/o Georgia State University Library - Administration Suite LS7
   100 Decatur Street SE
   Atlanta, GA 30303-3202

   Telephone:  404-413-2896

Follow ASERL on Facebook:  http://on.fb.me/Ziuz2a 
Find me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ASERLJEB

Attachment: ASERL-Lanter_New_Contract_DRAFT.docx
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