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Lending Library Responsibilities
Before the Interlibrary Loan Process
Yes, lending libraries also have responsibilities before a request arrives at the library. A lending library needs to make its policy available to borrowing libraries. You should also be willing to explain your policy to interested libraries and most importantly be fair or in formal terms, consistently administer your policy.
During the ILL Process
Decide whether or not you're going to make a copy or send the original. This comes into play for magazine articles and information from special reference items. If you receive a request and have the item in a different format from that requested, ask the borrowing library if the substitute is acceptable. The most obvious example of this problem is if you discover that the requested copy is missing and instead of a book you have microfilm. If you charge for an ILL, look at the form to see whether or not the borrowing library will accept the charge. If no cost is listed, take the time to contact the borrowing library and verify whether or not the patron is willing to pay and how much. We've talked about responsibilities for mailing and being unable to fill the request in previous lessons, but here's a quick summary. Absorb the nominal costs of mailing and/or insuring the item. If you can't fill a request within five days route the request to the next library, unless you are the last and/or only location.
