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Protocols

Introduction

Have you ever been asked to do something and then not told how to do it?  It can leave you frazzled, and even if you do manage to figure it out you probably make mistakes along the way.  What you need is training, guidelines, or both.  When it comes to Interlibrary Loan, this class will hopefully provide some training.  The Interlibrary Loan protocols will give you guidelines.  There are many different protocols, but the ones you need to be most aware of are the Montana Interlibrary Sharing and the National Interlibrary Loan Protocols.  This part is a quick introduction.  The rest of the class will based on these protocols.

Protocols

Montana Interlibrary Sharing Protocol
The Montana Interlibrary Sharing Protocol was adopted by the  Montana State Library Commission in 1998.

National Interlibrary Loan Code
The National Interlibrary Loan Code was prepared by the ALA Interlibrary Loan Committee in 1994.

What are the protocols and why use them?

The protocols are guidelines.  According to the Montana Interlibrary Sharing Protocol, their purpose is to bring order, equity and efficiency to interlibrary sharing.  Both the Montana protocol and the National code are concerned with providing citizens with a maximum access to information.  So what does that really mean?

By using the protocols, librarians will be following a uniform standard.  This makes it easier to do ILL for both the borrowing and lending libraries.