Interlibrary Loan Workflow and Procedures
Interlibrary loan is the process by which a library requests material from, or supplies material to, another library. The following suggestions may help you in defining your ILL workflow and procedures.
Divide the process into two halves: your patrons (Borrowing) and outgoing requests (Lending). On the premise that you see your patrons more frequently and as long as you are within the 4-day window for handling the Lending requests, process the Borrowing side first.
Borrowing
- Sort mail; separate copies from loans
- Process mail in; receiving and labeling as your system dictates
- Do patron notification; if statistics are kept, account for them
- Put items in proper location for pick-up
- If books have been returned, process them back
- Package and return those books; do statistics
Note: some institutions will have alternative methods of arrival of borrowed or copied items. Those items would just be inserted in step one. This is just intended as a general outline.
Lending
- Retrieve requests from other institutions and sort by media
- Check holdings and update requests for negative results
- Get books and/or journals from shelves
- Copy or scan articles; send, update, and do statistics
- Process books out as system dictates
- Package and send books; update and do statistics
Renewals
These should be handled as requests arise, whether via phone from other institutions, or from your patrons.
Retention of Request Forms
For borrowing, the current calendar year's records, plus the previous three calendar years' records of filled requests, are required by the CONTU Guidelines. This requirement only applies to requests for copies or reproductions and not to loan requests.
Urgent Requests
Be ready to call a lending institution if necessary to get an item in a hurry. In this case, also be prepared to lend in a pinch, or fax an article in a hurry if you have that capability. It all helps.