Interlibrary loan

Interlibrary loan is a service whereby a user of one library can borrow books, microfilms, recordings or photocopies of articles in magazines or videos and DVDs that are owned by another library. Sometimes for a small fee, or possibly for no cost, a library that has the item will loan it, and the item is transported to the requestor's library to be checked out or just used within the library.

Without interlibrary loans, if a library patron found an item they wanted, they would have to travel to that library, and apply for a local library card if eligible, or present a reciprocal card in order to borrow the item. By taking advantage of interlibrary loan, in comparison, the library staff can search large numbers of libraries at once, transport the item from several miles to thousands of miles away, and allow a patron to borrow the item using their local library card. Loans between branch libraries in the same system may take one or two days, while loans between library systems may take a week or more to be delivered. If an item is rare or difficult to find, this may be the easiest way to gain access to it. However, if an item is rare or difficult to find, interlibrary loan does not guarantee that the lending library will send the item to you through your local library. Some collections and volumes may be non-circulating.

Since the mid-1980s interlibrary loan searches have become easier, as many libraries have allowed library users to search their online catalogs at the library or over the Internet. This may be a search of one library at a time or of all the libraries in a particular library co-operative.

Libraries have formed voluntary associations with each other to provide a union catalog of all the items held by all member libraries, to facilitate interlibrary loans. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) is usually used by public and academic libraries in the U.S., and RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) is usually used primarily by academic libraries, although some libraries are members of both. Libraries that do not belong to a network participate in interlibrary loan by making the arrangements by postal mail.

Useful Information for Interlibrary Loan Users

• If you reside in the mainland United States,it may be more difficult to get materials from other countries, but libraries do borrow and lend between countries. Neighboring countries should be tapped first for faster turnaround time.

• Insurance and shipping charges may be an issue regarding loans from other countries. Check with the interlibrary loan staff regarding questions on these charges and whether any costs will be passed on to you.

• If you frequently use ILL, you might not get items every week. You might get many items one week and almost no items the next week.

• The OCLC First Search WorldCat Database is the best place to look for Interlibrary Loan items, and your local library probably does have an online "order form" to use to obtain the items, although some libraries in rural areas may still have print order forms.

• Many books published in Latin America are owned by the University of Texas in Austin. (They have one of the biggest Latin American libraries in the U.S.) Books regarding Alaska or the Polar Regions may come from Elmer Rasmusson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. University of Manoa in Hawaii has the largest depository of items regarding the Pacific Islands but, if on the mainland, it is usually not possible to get items from there.

• A rare book may be hard to obtain, but there is a chance that more than one library may own a copy. Some may loan their copies while others have policies restricting lending of rare materials. Interlibrary loan departments will usually try to obtain most requested items even if a title is considered "rare".

This information was written from the experiences of American interlibrary loan services. Interlibrary loan services for users outside of the U.S. may differ in policy, procedure and use of existing technologies.