More About Interlibrary Loan
October 08, 2012
In August, I posted a blog about how Interlibrary Loan items travel between us and other libraries in the country. I talked about the mail service, the greyhound bus, and our courier service. I did, however, forget to mention who is responsible for organizing the courier service for us. That would be MALA (Mid-America Library Alliance).
They are a wonderful group of people who work hard to coordinate everything between multiple courier services, using many different methods to get items back and forth between different libraries in so many states. Because of their efforts, we save money on postage, and get items quicker and more reliably. And, they are ever trying to increase our courier service, which makes me very happy. MALA is instrumental in keeping our Interlibrary Loan department going smoothly and efficiently.
Karen Wickwire
Interlibrary Loan Manager
Comments
Thank you
I am glad that we can get you what you want and quickly. We try really hard and it is always nice to hear that we are doing a good job.
Karen Wickwire
Interlibrary Loan Manager
Fantastic service!
I really appreciate how quickly items have arrived and the ease at which patrons can request items.
Question: Are there significant numbers of libraries across the country who do not choose to participate by loaning their material? Sometimes I request an item that has listed libraries owning the item but no one seems to lend it. Thanks!
Libraries not loaning
There are a few reasons that you may not be getting what you want. Even though WorldCat may list a large umber of libraries owning an item, they don't all loan them out. Or that it is a format that they don't lend. It could also be that the libraries charge for their loans and we only request from libraries that are free lenders. In the current economic conditions, libraries are really suffering and ILL is one of the first services many cut out or assigned a charge too. We are very committed to continuing offering our patrons this wonderful service. If you do get a notice that we cannot fill a request, please bring it in to your local branch and they can try and resubmit it for you. This will put the request through to different libraries and we may have better luck. I hope this helps!
love your world catolog
I love the ease I get items from other library systems. It seems to be so much faster this year.
April
ILL
Than you ILL! You are able to find 99.9% of everything I request. (the other .1% are items that are only available overseas, so way to go!) And thanks to MALA as well!
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