ILL: What I didn't know

Today, at the Reference and Access Services Council (RASC) meeting, I learned something that took me by surprise. Perhaps it's news to you, too.

If an item is checked out (or all copies of the item have been checked out), you can -- and, in fact, are advised to -- suggest that the patron put in an ILL request.

I had long been under the (apparently false) impression that ILL requests for Harvard-owned materials were verboten (except when they carried the designation "lost" or "missing." I've passed that message along to many students over the years, unfortunately.

Of course, for papers due within a very short time frame, ILL is perhaps no better an option than placing a "hold" on the Harvard copy. But if the question comes up, as it sometimes does in instruction sessions, you now have the straight story.

The Widener ILL web page makes no mention of this exception. Nor does it identify Baker and Countway as libraries that provide internal ILLs to Harvard affiliates.

I've emailed Marilyn about the web page in the hopes that a sentence or two might be added, if only to clear up librarians' lingering confusions. She's agreeed to see what she can do.