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Forms

Introduction

An ILL form is a contract between the borrowing and lending libraries, which is a good reason for making sure your form is accurate. Another thing to consider is that we want to keep the lending library happy, since the library is doing us a favor in loaning an item.  One of the most important ways to do this is to fill out a request form correctly.  There are many different forms, but this lesson is only going to talk about the ALA, and FirstSearch ILL forms.  All of these forms have similar components; the main difference deals with electronic versus print.

What needs to be on a form no matter which one you use?

All forms should have the following components:

• Borrowing Library Information
  Your library's name and address.
• Book Author and Title or Serial Title and volume, issue, date, pages
  Obviously the lending library needs to know what you are requesting.  What's the title of the book?  Who is it by?  In the case of a magazine, what is the title? What year, month, and day do you need?  What page(s) is the article on?
• Article Author And/Or Title
  If you are requesting a magazine article, the lending library needs to know the name of the article and who wrote it.
• Request complies with CCG/CCL
  We will talk about copyright compliance later on.  When you are requesting a magazine article, you need to let the lending library know that you are following either copyright law or guidelines.
• Date
  W hen did you make the request?
• Need Before
  Does your patron need this item by a certain date?
• Notes
  This is the place to put additional information, such as "If unable to fill the request, please forward on to the next library."
• Verification
  Where did you get the citation information for this item?  Was it on WorldCat?  Or a magazine database?  With this information the lending library is able to look for the item, if there are problems.  Make sure you use a current verification tool.  If you use an older one, things may have changed.  The library may no longer own the item, in which case you would be wasting your time, their time, and the patron's time.
• Cost
  How much is the patron willing to pay?  Be sure to put down a cost figure, even if it's zero.  It makes the process smoother if the lending library knows that your patron is unwilling to pay.  If that library charges, it will know whether or not to fill the request or forward it to the next library. By not filling out the cost statement, you could delay the loan.
• Authorization
  Who is responsible for Interlibrary Loan at the borrowing library?
• Lending Library Address
  Who are you sending this to?
• Routing Sequence and Call Numbers
  If the first library doesn't have the item, who should it be sent to next? And what are the call numbers at the lending libraries for the item?
• Date Sent
  This is used by lending libraries. When did they send the item to the borrowing library?
• Date Due
  When does the lending library want the item back?
• Charges
  How much does the lending library charge for an item?
• Date Received
  When did the borrowing library receive the item?
• Date Returned
  When did the borrowing library return the item?

Examples of ILL Forms

Click on the following links to see what the different forms look like.  Can you find the variables mentioned above?  What are the differences, if any?

• ALA (jpg)
  Typically ALA forms are used in paper requests for an item.
• FirstSearch ILL (jpg)
  This is an electronic Interlibrary Loan tool.

Exercise

Try this exercise, if you would like some practice working with ILL forms. Put yourself in the lending library's shoes, when you look at these forms.  What's wrong with them? To find out if your answers are correct, click on the solutions.