THE INS AND OUTS OF INTERLIBRARY LOAN

by Denise F. Millman

Interlibrary loan is a way for our library to obtain materials for our clients that are not available in our collections. In order to do this, the library participates in a nationwide consortium of over 30,000 libraries called OCLC, which stands for Online Computer Library Center. With OCLC, a user is able to access the books and periodicals of other libraries. We can get reprints of articles and books for loan, from just about anywhere in the country.

Before you request an interlibrary loan, make sure the item you want is not here at LIU:

• If it's a book, check both the on-line public access library catalog and, particularly if it's an older book, check the card catalog drawers.
• If it's an issue of a periodical or journal, check the Periodicals Holdings List. Let us know if the article you need is in a journal which we should own, according to our periodicals list, but is missing.

We also get book materials from other campuses of Long Island University which you find in LIUCAT. You need to fill out our interlibrary loan forms for these materials and indicate on the form the campus holding the item and the call number, if it's a book.

When you request copies of articles in journals, it is very important to pay attention to details in completing our forms. Please supply us with the full name of the journal--we will not process interlibrary loan forms with abbreviated journal titles. Please ask library staff for assistance in determining what a journal abbreviation stands for. We also need as much information as possible: the author of the article, the name of the article, and the date of the journal it's in. Please indicate the source of your request--where you found the citation: database search, book or article bibliography.

If you're selecting a book, please indicate the edition desired, and if a paperback edition is acceptable.

Please try to be selective when you request articles--when you request 20+ articles on your topic, your classmates are also selecting many articles, and it's hard for library staff to keep up with processing that many loans. Place priority numbers on your requests. Allow enough time. The average loan has a ten-day turn-around. Some arrive sooner, a lot take longer. We make every effort to notify you and let you know that your materials have arrived.

Please remember that other libraries are sharing their resources with us--so if you do borrow a book from another library, return it on time.

While the system opens up great possibilities, it also has its limitations. OCLC can tell us what libraries own specific books, but it cannot tell us if the book is available for loan -- a book might be a Reference Book which must stay in the library, or someone might have borrowed it, or it might be missing. A journal might be missing, or an article may have been torn or ripped out. These are a few of the reasons why the loan you absolutely needed to have yesterday hasn't arrived in our library yet. Finally, the library absorbs all costs involved, so this service is free to you.

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