not hesitate to make suggestions and comments regarding this
manual and the interlibrary loan service to the Council office.

January 1976

INTERLIBRARY LOAN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Our interlibrary loan program is based on the premise that lending
among libraries for the benefit of individuals in Nassau and Suffolk
counties is in the public interest and should be encouraged. It is
impossible for any one library to be self-sufficient, and interlibrary
borrowing and lending is regarded by the libraries participating in
this program as essential to library service.

It is the policy of the Council that the routines of borrowing and
lending are simplified as much as possible consistent with the
protection of material. Every effort is made to emphasize speed and to
base the service on a spirit of cooperation and trust among
participating libraries.

What follows comprise the procedures and standards that have developed
gradually and voluntarily in our area--this is what works for us.
Changes may be introduced as the need arises.

What may be borrowed

It is recognized that interlibrary borrowing does not relieve any
library of the responsibility for developing its own collection. Each
library should provide the bulk of materials needed by its users for
purposes of study, instruction, information and research.

The borrowing library should make every effort to exhaust its own
resources before turning to interlibrary loan. It should also screen
requests carefully before transmitting them to the Council, eliminating
those which common sense indicates would not be supplied.

The borrowing library is responsible for returning loans promptly and
in good condition. The borrowing library should respond quickly to
overdue notices and is responsible for paying fees for lost books as
levied by the lending library. The library should refuse to request
books on interlibrary loan on behalf of borrowers who abuse the
privilege.

Placing requests

Our network is part of an hierarchical system. Requests we cannot
locate in the region we send to the New York State Interlibrary Loan
Network (NYSILL) which searches the State Library in Albany and
selected referral libraries in the State. The key to the success of
NYSILL is that it is asked only for materials not available locally.
The network would break down if the major libraries were asked to
supply commonly held materials. Medically oriented requests not found