When I started working in interlibrary loan two years ago, my experience with the system was limited to getting one book on vintage hairstyles through my public library and frantically requesting articles for impending papers during my undergraduate degree. As part of the application for the position, I had to write an essay on why ILL is important in the public library. I’m too afraid to dig it up to quote it for you all, but I’m almost positive it was something along the lines of, “Uh… I dunno, access probably?” I’m not entirely sure how I got hired considering how little I actually knew about the complex, wonderful, improbable, wacky system that is interlibrary loan. But it probably had something to do with innate charm, self-confidence, and poise.

This is what innate charm, self-confidence, and poise look like, right?

In the intervening time, however, I have come to love and respect the process of interlibrary loan, and if you’ve talked to me about libraries for more than five minutes chances are you’ve heard all about it. My favorite thing to do is brag about how many lending strings I have memorized – as you might know, each library is assigned a three-letter code to assist with automation. Ours is CQU, and I’ve been known to shout a library’s lending string upon seeing an advertisement for its college in the airport or to identify people this way at interlibrary loan conferences. I also have a good memory for items I process, which made me humbly decide to crown myself the Ollivander of ILL (“I remember every ILL I’ve ever processed, Mr. Potter…”). As you can imagine, these qualities make me super fun to be around.

“The ILL chooses the borrower. That much has always been clear to those of us who have studied interlibrary loan lore.” – Ollivander if he were a librarian, probably. (Photo in the Public Domain courtesy of Pixabay.)

In all seriousness, however, ILL is a vital and underappreciated aspect of library services. In 2015, I was able to go to a local interlibrary loan conference where EveryLibrary’s John Chrastka was the keynote speaker. This meant almost nothing to me at the time but I have gone on to become EveryLibrary’s biggest fangirl, mainly because what Chrastka had to say about ILL was so compelling. He made the argument that interlibrary loan is an incredibly subversive and unlikely system – it operates across state (and sometimes national) lines, it is reciprocal in nature (“I won’t charge you if you don’t charge me,”), and relatively few people actually know that it exists. It can benefit large and small libraries alike, it opens up the world of information to our patrons, and it’s so complex that it seems like it shouldn’t really work but still does.

But, as has been discussed by many, Chrastka also pointed out the ways in which ILL is falling behind and failing patrons. We may soon be able to have a pizza delivered by drone to our front door in minutes. In this sort of environment, people won’t be willing to wait the three-to-six weeks I warn my patrons they might have to endure to get their ILL. They’ll want it instantaneously, and they’ll want it digitally – which is also nearly impossible in the current state of ILL. Systems like Occam’s Reader are trying to make ebooks more ILL-friendly, but the work is slow going and definitely not widespread.

So my question for you all is this – how can we (as students, as future professionals, as library advocates) make interlibrary loan better? Even here, on HLS, the visibility and support for ILL is nearly non-existent – most of the articles that mention it regard it in a negative light (it’s inefficient for patrons or an unwieldy system.) But as Jessica pointed out in a recent article, ILL is often the only way some collections come to light. It’s often the only way patrons in remote or small library districts get access to a wider collection of materials. And how else would my patrons get access to all the obscure horror movies, 21-cases of the Bible on CD audio book, and sheet music that their hearts desire?

ILL is important, and after two years of carting books from the mail to my office to the branches to the patron and back through the other direction, I finally have better strategies to articulate it. So do you know the ins and outs of the ILL system at your library? In your job, how can you better represent and advocate for ILL to your patrons? If we can start answering some of these questions, maybe we can start to make ILL better – for our patrons and for the principles we hold as information professionals.