ILL Record keeping

Part of the process of requesting an ILL is keeping records of how many and what types of ILL transactions are sent out from a library every year.  This information is important in many ways.

If a library is requesting a book or video or some other type of original item, records should be kept showing what items were requested and which libraries the requests were filled from.  ILL etiquette suggests that if there is a title that must be requested through ILL often, for example 4 or 5 times in a year, the library should purchase a copy and add it to their collection to meet the demand for it. 

Another reason for keeping good records is so that ILL requests are not repeatedly going to the same library.  Sharing the load so that requests go to a variety of participating libraries is one way to make sure that no library is overworked in the ILL process.  A requesting library that sends requests to a limited number of libraries over and over may acquire a reputation as an ILL pest.

If the item being requested is a photocopy of an article or other text, the requesting library will need some slightly different information in the ILL record keeping.  It will still be important to keep track of where the request is sent, and not to overuse any particular library for ILL requests.  For copies of journal and magazine articles, there is another piece of information that must be tracked.

Copyright guidelines require that libraries track the number of copies they request from individual magazine or journal titles during the calendar year.  A library may request copies of up to 5 total individual articles from the last 5 years of any particular journal or magazine title that they do not own.  This does not affect requests for articles because an issue of a journal or magazine is missing or has lost some pages.  This refers to titles not owned by the requesting library.  If the library receives an ILL request from a patron that is the 6th one in any given year, the library has two choices.  They can either refuse to send out an ILL request because they have exceeded their copyright limit, or they can send the request and agree to pay the copyright fee for additional copies of articles from this title. 

Most libraries choose not to deal with copyright permission fees, so will deny patron requests when they reach their allotted 5.  Some libraries will agree to cover the costs for additional articles.  These costs vary from title to title, and mean that the library must either file with a copyright owner individually or through a clearinghouse that will arrange the payment and bill the library the specified fees.  An example of a clearinghouse is the Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com) , where filing for permission is done entirely online.  Each library must decide their policy on this question and follow through with it.

On an ILL request form when requesting copies of an article, the library will need to indicate either "CCL" or "CCG."  CCL means that the request complies with copyright law (Section 108) and applies to copies that are older than five years.  CCG is used for requests for articles published in the most recent five years and indicates that the request complies with the CONTU Guidelines and the library has followed the process described in the paragraph above.

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