2.4 INTERLIBRARY LOAN/NETWORK TRANSFER

The Chelmsford Library subscribes to the National Interlibrary Code and the American Library Association Standards and Recommendations for Interlibrary Loan.

Interlibrary loan service is essential to the vitality of libraries of all types and sizes as a means of greatly expanding the range of materials available to users. Lending between libraries is in the public interest and should be encouraged. This code is intended to make interlibrary loan policies among those libraries adopting it as liberal and as easy to apply as possible. Interlibrary loan should serve as an adjunct to, not a substitute for, collection development. When resources within the region have been exhausted, loan requests to more distant libraries should then conform to the provisions of the National Interlibrary Loan Code, 2001.

Loans may be network transfers, virtual catalog requests or Interlibrary Loans: A network transfer is an item provided by the MVLC consortium. A virtual catalog request is provided by other Massachusetts networks or obtained out of state. An interlibrary loan is a transaction in which library material is made available by one library to another upon request.

2.4-1 GUIDELINES FOR NETWORK TRANSFERS AND INTERLIBRARY LOANS

To meet the needs of library users in the MVLC member cities and towns, member libraries have agreed to send their materials to other libraries for direct lending to holders of valid library cards.

• To improve service to patrons and to carry out the resource mission of the Consortium, all members will make all their circulating materials, regardless of format, available for intra-network transfer except for local rental collections and titles for which there are local holds. Local rental collections will be identified as such in the call number field of the item. For the purposes of this policy, items such as museum passes and equipment such as projectors are not considered to be materials.
• To improve service to patrons, member libraries whose own copies of any requested title are checked out will have the option of placing a network transfer request for an on shelf copy (except if it is a new book which has not yet circulated) or of placing a system-wide hold for the first available copy.
• The owning library always has the right of refusal, and may elect not to loan materials requested by another member library via ILL or SWH. The refusing library should notify the requesting library via e-mail.
• Libraries should make requests only for on-shelf items. If all system copies are in circulation, a system-wide hold should be placed on the title.
• Requests should be made using the LIBS100+ e-mail system.
• Requests should include: A/T code, author, title, date of publication and owning library’s call number.
• All libraries should make every attempt to respond to all requests within 24 hours. (Only “no” replies are necessary—except for Andover which needs both “yes” and “no” replies.) All materials should be included in the next delivery van pick-up.
• Dial-up libraries may use e-mail to request items directly from any MVLC library following all established guidelines. Libraries with full-member status may use e-mail to request items directly from dial-up libraries. MVLC member libraries may request items directly from several other Massachusetts networks via e-mail, using the same policies and procedures used to request items from MVLC libraries.
• Titles not found in the MVLC, NOBLE, Minuteman, Metro Boston, or OCLN databases may be requested from Andover, using the standard ALA forms.
• Materials should be checked out to the requesting library.
• Materials being shipped should be clearly labeled.
• The borrowing library will check out the material, using the LIBS100+ system, to its patron, who then becomes responsible for overdue fines or loss or damage.
• Overdue fines (up to $10.00) may be collected wherever the material is returned.
• The pick-up point library may renew an item one time. Videos may not be renewed without permission from the owning library.
• Libraries should make every effort to maintain intra-network resource sharing service except in extreme circumstances.
• People who have access to the CLCAT database from their home computers may be calling to place reserves. Calls for reserves for on-shelf items made to the owning library when that library is not the patron’s home town library, should be accepted. A system-wide hold should be placed on the item; it should then immediately be checked in and forwarded to the pick-up point requested by the patron. As an added courtesy, include the patron’s name on the purple routing slip.

Interlibrary Loan services include mediated ILL within and outside the region and journal article supply from the Boston Public Library's ILLIAD document delivery service.

2.4-2 DEFINITIONS

Interlibrary loan

A transaction in which library material or a copy of the material is made available by one library to another upon request. The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners recognizes two types of lending/borrowing activities -- network transfers and mediated interlibrary loan.

Network transfer

A transaction in which a member of a library network (or consortium) requests materials electronically from another member of a that network. Our consortium is the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. It is part of the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System.

Mediated interlibrary loan

Encompasses all other requests. If the material is requested from a network different from that to which the requestor belongs, then the request may also be referred to as a point-to-point request.