Interlibrary Loan

Materials not available in our collection may be requested through Interlibrary Loan from other libraries. Materials must have been published at least one year before they can be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan. Newer materials will be considered for purchase by the library if they are determined to be of general interest to our patrons. Items available for Interlibrary Loan are determined by the lending libraries, therefore we are seldom able to borrow reference or genealogy books.

In order to request an Interlibrary Loan, a patron must have a valid library card and no outstanding fines or overdue books.  Each patron is limited to 3 ILL requests at a time. Patrons will be responsible for paying the postage and insurance (if required by lending library) to return the item to the lending library. If a copy of an article is requested through ILL, the patron will be responsible for the copy costs charged by the owning library.

Interlibrary loan requests may be taken over the telephone if the patron has previously borrowed items through Interlibrary Loan and meets the other conditions. Otherwise:

The ILL request must be made in person at the Reference Desk from a reference librarian. When requesting an ILL, the patron will be required to sign the request form, indicating that he/she understands the rules and will be responsible for the postage required to send the book back to the lending library.

The loan period for ILL materials are determined by the lending library.  ILL materials may only be renewed with the permission of the lending library, so renewal requests must be made to the reference staff at least 3 days before the date due. Interlibrary Loan materials are requested through a nationwide network and we do not have control over which library will supply the requested item.

Overdue ILL’s will be charged at a rate of $1.00 a day. There is no grace period for ILL items. If an ILL book is lost, the patron is responsible for the replacement costs and any processing fees charged by the lending library. Because Temple Public Library’s future borrowing privileges can be impacted by a patron’s abuse of the system, the library reserves the right to refuse further ILL requests from patrons who have damaged, lost, or kept ILL materials long overdue.

As an ILL lending library, Temple Public Library will lend materials more than a year old with the exception of audio-visual and non-circulating materials (reference materials, genealogy materials, microfilm). The circulation period will be 4 weeks and materials may be renewed once.