Illinois State Library

THE ILLINET INTERLIBRARY LOAN CODE

Current Interlibrary Loan Code  |  Statewide ILLNET ILL Traffic Form

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL)Code Committee which was appointed in July, 1999, was charged with revising the ILLINET Interlibrary Loan Code. The ILL Code was last revised in 2000.

It may be helpful to review the process of revising the Interlibrary Loan Code over the past year. A committee of practicing librarians surveyed the field, evaluated the 1993 version of the ILL Code, revised and expanded it and shared it with librarians across the state in order to gather their thoughts and reactions. Since the review process began, the Code has been

• posted on the Illinois State Library web site
• shared with regional library system directors at the February 9th System Presidents and Directors (SP&D) meeting
• reviewed in a special session during the Illinois State Library sponsored "On the Front Lines" March 13-15, 2000
• discussed at regional library system board meetings
• presented to the Illinois State Library Advisory Committee (ISLAC) and the ILLINET Network Advisory Council (INAC).

In the past, ILLINET member libraries were asked to submit interlibrary loan statistics twice a year, for April and October. Effective this year, libraries are being asked to keep year-round statistics rather than provide numbers for only two months which may or may not give a true picture of interlibrary loan use at any given library.

The ILLINET Interlibrary Loan Code Revision Committee also realized that fiscal years vary greatly from library to library, and as a result selected an arbitrary time period of July 1 to June 30 to represent the yearlong collection period. Since the form is being distributed in September this year, please estimate any July through August use that may not be covered by your local statistics. Please do not feel you should change your statistics gathering period to meet the needs of the statewide library community.

Many ILLINET libraries have asked why it is important to collect interlibrary loan statistics. Listed below are several reasons why these statistics are important for all of us in the Illinois library community. Please feel free to share this information with your library staff, your board and your library users.

• It is difficult to make legitimate comparisons of activity and involvement when there are no numbers available from year to year
• Statistics can provide data which support the development of new programs (such as the Educate & Automate grant program which is administered by the Illinois State Library).
• Statistics provide hard facts indicating trends, which then provide direction for addressing statewide needs, initiatives and programs.
• Collected statistics will help to detail the level of involvement of individual libraries in regard to resource sharing in the Illinois library community.