Excellent idea if you have the expertise and technology. I'm sure that it would have a beneficial effect in several respects. For what it's worth, I've check out damaged books (coffee spills, torn or taped pages, etc) but I always take them to the circ desk and have a note made that they were damaged when I checked them out. Michael D. McGuire Grand Rapids, MI mdmcguire@yahoo.com ________________________________ From: Cynthia Kleinheksel <cjkleinhe@yahoo.com> To: Michael McGuire <mdmcguire@yahoo.com>; "michlib-l@mail.mcls.org" <michlib-l@mail.mcls.org> Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 5:52 PM Subject: Re: [Michlib-l] Damaged items question Michael, You commented that a "digital photo could/should be made and retained" and that brought to mind that maybe a digital photo of the damage could/should be included in the original letter sent to the patron. Evidence of the damage might encourage the patron to pay more attention to the bill. It would be fairly easy to "Insert" the digitized photo into the body of the text. Just a thought! Cynthia Kleinheksel