Interlibrary loan

[lbowlds@geosociety.org (Larry Bowlds)]

>It is indeed possible that the book you requested was one that many
>libraries would be unlikely to loan because it would be frequently
>consulted or for whatever reason. It can hardly hurt to TRY, though.
>The cost of making a request is pretty minimal.

>Doing ILL requests on OCLC is dead easy, especially for a monographic book.
>Here's how it works. You locate a master record for the item in question
>using search keys that, while not as user friendly as they might be, 
>every librarian should know by heart. You type "dh" and see a listing of
>three letter codes for every OCLC library in the world that has the book.
>You choose several of the codes using whatever algorithm you wish (such
>as geographic nearness -- they are sorted into groups by state) I also
>take into account what we are going to get charged and put the free/
>cheapest ILL libraries first; it is another step to look at each library's
>charging policies. Then creating the request is one single line command:
>wf [SYMBOL1] [SYMBOL2] [SYMBOL3] etc. Then "p" for produce and the request
>is automagically sent to the first library on the list, and so on down the
>line until someone agrees to loan the item. If they all refuse, the librarian
>can just create another record with another five libraries or so. The basic
>method where you don't check policies should take anyone with a modicum of
>training less than a minute to process. My method where you examine the 
>policies may take about five minutes.

>Are you going to the big city library (2.5 million) or the one in your
>small town? if the latter you might well be able to get a card at the one
>in the city. Here in Cleveland, anybody in Cuyahoga County can get a 
>Cleveland Public Library card OR a Cuyahoga County Public Library card. We
>have two whole separate systems, each excellent in its own way.

>Either way, it sounds like this ILL person is giving you a load of bull.
>You should try to get a written copy of this library's ILL policies. 
>(Is there a limit on requests per patron? How many is it? Do they pass on
>fees to the patron?) You should also talk to this person's supervisor,
>to the supervisor's supervisor and on up the line until you get the right
>answers.

>David Condon, Librarian

>-- 
>Library                                   |        cmnhlib@uci1.cwru.edu
>Cleveland Museum of Natural History       |
>1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle      |        +1 (216) 231-4600 ext.222 
>Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1767                |        Fax: +1 (216) 231-5919

David,

Thanks for your help. I had no idea that ILL requests were so easy
to process. I won't feel bad about going after her if she stalls
me again!

You're right about using more than one library. I have cards for
three libraries and get most of my books from the Univ. of Colorado
Earth Sciences Library. Unfortunately, they are underfunded, and
the collection is short in many areas, including paleontology. As
far as I know, I can borrow by ILL only from my home-town library.

Thanks again.

Larry

-- 
*---------------------------------------------
*Larry S. Bowlds        lbowlds@geosociety.org
*Geological Society of America
*Bulletin Managing Editor
*(303) 447-2020, ext. 147        
*---------------------------------------------