How Interlibrary Loan Works
Interlibrary loan, or resource sharing, has two operations: borrowing and lending.
- A borrowing library sends an owning library a request to borrow, photocopy, or scan materials needed by their patron.
- The owning library fills the request by sending materials to the borrowing library or supplies a reason why it cannot fill the request.
- If the item is sent, the borrowing library notifies the patron when the item arrives.
Interlibrary loan and resource sharing have a variety of systems and workflows, often based on the scale of service, regional networks, and library systems. Processes are automated by computer systems such as VDX based on ISO ILL standards 10161 and 10160.
Loan requests between branch libraries in the same local library system are usually filled promptly, while loan requests between library systems may take weeks to complete. However, if an item is rare, fragile, or exceptionally valuable, the owning library is under no obligation to release it for interlibrary loan. Some collections and volumes, especially bound journals and one-of-a-kind manuscripts, are non-circulating, meaning that they may not be borrowed. Books may be delivered by mail or courier service. Photocopies may be faxed or scanned and delivered electronically. Urgent requests are placed if the item is needed right away, sometimes for additional fees. Public libraries do not usually offer urgent service.
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