EFTS, the Electronic Fund Transfer System used to debit and credit member accounts for the cost of interlibrary loans, was started in 1996 and currently has over 1200 participants.\u00a0 There are now EFTS libraries in each of the 50 states, Canada, and Mexico.\u00a0 In developing the service over the past 12 years, EFTS staff has had the opportunity to listen to many librarians who have raised questions, issue and concerns regarding EFTS.\u00a0 Here are some of the more frequent questions and answers:<\/p>\n
Has the use of EFTS eliminated or reduced the work associated with overdue bill collecting? What about staff time needed to upload transactions files to EFTS?<\/strong> How can a library that is part of an institution that does not allow deposit accounts join EFTS?<\/strong> Why does EFTS charge a service fee to only the loaning library and not the borrowing library? Efforts to expand our participant group are in full force, and we continue our commitment to providing the best service possible to our membership.\u00a0 If your institution isn’t already a member, please consider joining EFTS, https:\/\/efts.uchc.edu<\/a>.\u00a0 If you have any questions, contact your regional DOCLINE coordinator, Pat Devine, at (800)338-7657, or devine@u.washington.edu<\/a>.\u00a0 Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" EFTS, the Electronic Fund Transfer System used to debit and credit member accounts for the cost of interlibrary loans, was started in 1996 and currently has over 1200 participants.\u00a0 There are now EFTS libraries in each of the 50 states, Canada, and Mexico.\u00a0 In developing the service over the past 12 years, EFTS staff has… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-rsdd"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15396,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/15396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Yes.\u00a0 EFTS takes responsibility for making sure bills are paid.\u00a0 Large EFTS net lenders find that staff committed to billing and collections can be utilized in other areas.<\/p>\n
\nYou may be surprised at how little time it takes to create the transaction files.\u00a0 Many third party ILL management programs like QuickDoc, Illiad, Clio, and DOCLINE already support the creation of EFTS files.\u00a0 You may also enter the transaction data directly into the EFTS system.\u00a0 Remember that only transactions for which a loaning library has charged a fee have to be uploaded.\u00a0 The borrowing library doesn’t need to do anything.\u00a0 Transactions can be uploaded at any time and are processed immediately.<\/p>\n
\nSometimes, this is a matter of perspective.\u00a0 A journal subscription could be considered a form of deposit account, since pre-payment is made for a product to be received in installments over time.\u00a0 Questions are usually not raised about the appropriateness of library subscriptions.\u00a0 Another view is that EFTS is a bill reconciliation service.\u00a0 Sufficient funds are kept on account to cover the cost of a library’s ILL transactions.\u00a0 In addition, income from loaned transactions often covers the cost of borrowing.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>EFTS eliminates the need for invoicing on the part of the loaning library.\u00a0 The service fee is intended to replace the cost of invoicing.\u00a0 The expense of the latter includes not only producing and sending the actual invoice, but also following up on unpaid accounts.\u00a0 Additional costs for getting an article, unfortunately, may be the deciding factor in some cases as to whether or not the request is ever made.\u00a0 Therefore, no service charge for borrowing encourages resource sharing, which translates into more income for the loaning libraries without invoicing.<\/p>\n