CFL Student Employee Training

Interlibrary Loan, more commonly known as ILL, is a program where two different things happen:

• Our patrons want materials we don't have access to - this department will request it from another library to loan for a short window of time. How long that time frame is depends on the lending library; not us.
  • Our department will not
    • order textbooks from other libraries
    • order ebooks
• Patrons at other libraries want materials we have that they don't.
  • Our department will
    • scan an article or book chapter, following copyright rules
    • find the item and mail it out to the requesting library for a set time period

This section is to help you know some basic things to assist our patrons.

How to use ILL

• go to library homepage library.und.edu
• Beneath the Search Bar are 4 boxes. Click on the furthest right "Interlibrary Loan"
• Click on Request an Item
• It will ask you to register if you have never done so before
• Choose type of material needed
• Fill in information
• Provide a minimum of 10 days for the ILL folks to get the materials
  • They need a day to see the request, a day to locate libraries that have it, and then the lending library needs a day to retrieve and send
  • Let the patron know that often times (especially with articles!) we will get them out in email within 24 hours. We just need the processing time longer in case there is difficulty finding what they want!

When helping someone register for ILL using your own computer:

• This is not preferred! They should use their own computer.
• Do so in a private/incognito window. Otherwise, It will use your login, sending it to you.  So if using your own PC, just start a private window first. That will force a fresh login.
  • starting a private window is CTRL+SHIFT+N in Chrome or CTRL+SHIFT+P in Firefox.

At the top of the pink bands on ILL books, it would be written "In Library Use Only"

If you see this

• Check the book out like usual
• tell them it must be turned in each day but will not be checked in until they say they are done with it

When they return it each day

• check for that message on ILLs
• if there is one, ask if they are ready to have it returned or if they need more time
  • If they need more time, return it to the bottom shelf in ILL that is labeled "IN LIBRARY USE ONLY"
  • If they are done, THEN check it in