Document Delivery Manual:
Borrowing

Topics on this page:
Verification Interlibrary Loan Request Systems Borrowing Etiquette Source/Additional Information

Resource sharing between libraries is a vital service for all types of libraries. Health science libraries have a mission to provide essential information support for health professionals, students in the health professions, and sometimes patients or other users. This support ultimately translates into the dissemination of the latest technological and research results for providing high quality patient care. Interlibrary loan is a means to meet the informational needs of users when the local collection cannot.

Requests for library materials not located in a library's collection should be considered as possible interlibrary loan requests. The term "interlibrary loan" is somewhat a misnomer today because the vast majority of requests between health science libraries are for copies of a book chapter or journal article, rather than for borrowing the items themselves. Audiovisuals, computer software, and even original materials such as books may not circulate due to licensing restrictions, reference or reserve status, or heavy usage in the lending library.

The borrowing process begins with a request from a patron for an item. The information provided may be a bibliographic citation from a literature search or a reference at the end of a journal article or book chapter. Any bibliographic information should be verified as complete and accurate.

Verification

Verification is the process of checking the accuracy of each element of a bibliographic citation in an authoritative index or database. If verification information cannot be located, a source of the reference should be noted on the request.

Journal article verification tools include:

PubMed - Free MEDLINE database interface produced by the National Library of Medicine; includes "single citation matcher" for verification of journal articles
CINAHL - Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature available online via EBSCO host

Book verification tools include:

LOCATORPlus - National Library of Medicine's online catalog
OCLC
Books in Print

Interlibrary Loan Request Systems

The most common interlibrary loan system used by health sciences libraries is DOCLINE. Other systems include:

OCLC
Printed ALA form
Telephone, fax or written request

Borrowing Etiquette

Interlibrary loan services depend on a relationship with each library willing to supply materials and to whom the borrowing library is willing to supply articles as well. Requesting libraries' responsibilities include:

Acknowledging policies and procedures of the lending libraries, including honoring due dates, shipping policies, and other conditions set by the lender
Promptly paying any charges incurred and invoiced by the lending library
Attempting to verify the correctness of a bibliographic citation before transmitting it to the lender
Distributing requests evenly among holding libraries to avoid overburdening a small group of libraries
Transmitting requests that comply with applicable standards of the Medical Library Association, American Library Association, or other authorized agency
Complying with the U.S. copyright law and its guidelines, including all record keeping, paying fees, and signage requirements
Making proper use of request priorities such as "rush"