I just found out that our inter-library loan system covers the ENTIRE state of California's public libraries :o , not just the Northern California group of 96 libraries.

Our county's website used to show a link for "Other Libraries", which led you to a catalog for the 96 branches ... but an updated site now it takes us to the ALL public libraries in California.

I asked the librarian, who said we have always been able to request books from the entire state ... but there was no such info on the site, nor was there a link to that larger catalog. I guess we were just supposed to know ? :wacko:

So, since we're all Book O Holics, it might be worth asking.

A quick search in the California catalog found about 90% of the books on my PBS wish list!!!! And requesting them is free :bananadance:

It doesn't cost anything to do this? For some reason, I was thinking it cost money to do a interlibrary loan. :shrug:

It's never cost me any money to do an inter-library loan. :shrug:

dude, that rocks! I didn't even know about that (I'm in tx tho) That might be worth looking into... our library here doesn't exactly know what chick-lit is.. and try finding a "new age" book :rolleyes: You'd think just having it on the shelf would "damn the whole place to hell"

*runs off to check out the option!*

Your in a big city. Cheesy is in a small town in Alabama. :shrug:

Yep it's $2 here:
http://flpl.lib.al.us/illrequest.htm

Usually the library absorbs the cost itself for ILL. I have heard of libraries charging the customer, but I think those examples were from European academic libraries.

Sorry I'm not in Europe and they charge us. :cry: Look up above for my link. :P

Where I am in Massachusetts, our inter-library loan is free, but it doesn't cover the entire state. Instead, Wilmington is part of the "Merrimack Valley Library Consortium" which includes 35 cities and towns North of Boston, some all the way up into Southern New Hampshire.

The Merrimack Valley itself generally includes the Lowell area and surrounding communities. :yuck: I don't really like to consider myself part of the Lowell area, and instead prefer to call us North Surburban Boston. But our phone books and Library Consortium tend to disagree. Though for all intents and purposes, Wilmington is one of the surrounding edge cities in the group, since it's only 13 miles North of Boston.

I once got a book from two states away via an interlibrary loan. I didn't have to pay, but the order form asked how much I was willing to pay if there was a charge
by the other library. Thanks for reminding me about this - there are a couple of audiobooks I'm looking for that Atlanta/Fulton and Netlibrary don't have. It's off to the library webpage I go...

My library has an ILL for the County-I'm not sure this would extend outside the county or not.

But on the other hand, ESU has an ILL of all State-funded Colleges in PA.

Neither you would need to pay for though. :ph34r:

as a former librarian..there were usually not cost..there were occassionally cost, but that was a rarity and it was about $2.00 and if I remember correctly that was on the off chance they got it from a different state. There is a form we had where you could fill out the title, author, etc..and there was a place where you could check if you were or weren't willing to pay for shipping.

Just ask the librarian if you have any questions.

When I worked at a library, our ILL was nationwide. The search was by geographic location, so first it checked Texas, but we got books from all over the country. And there was never a fee. (But heaven help you if you didn't return something on time. The library police send the library SWAT team! :P )