Are you trying to read every book that your favourite author has written? Has someone recommended a slightly obscure non-fiction book to you? Do you want to share all your favourite kids books with your own children? Can’t find it in our catalogue?
At our six branches, we have space for plenty of books, and since we have a pretty well-perfected system for moving books from branch to branch, you may very well have access to all the books you could ever want, just within our library system. However, space is always limited, and we can’t have every book on our shelves, especially older books that might be past their height of popularity.
Interlibrary loan to the rescue! We are a part of a network of libraries across Ontario, which gives you access to hundreds of library catalogues and almost every book you could imagine. We even have access to libraries in Saskatchewan and Quebec, and university libraries in Ontario for those of you doing the hard work of heavy research. Interlibrary loan, or ILLO for short, is a free service through the Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS), and all you need to do to access it is ask!
There are two ways to request a book or DVD through ILLO. If you’re a little computer savvy, you can log on to your own ILLO account directly using this link. Use your library card number and your PIN to log in, making sure that you select our library from the drop down on the login page. Once logged in, select our district – Rideau South – and search for the title of the book you want to borrow. Click Get it!, and, on the next page, Request and the book will be on its way to you!
If all of that sounds too complicated, don’t worry! You are still able to take advantage of our ILLO system! Just give us a call or pop in to the library and let us know what book it is you want to read. As long as we can find it in ILLO system and it’s older than one year, we will be able to bring it in for you.
How exactly does a book get from a different library system to you?
Once you put a book on hold, the library that owns it pulls it from their shelves and packs it up in envelopes or special courier bags. They add a route number and bundle everything into boxes to be picked up by the SOLS delivery van. SOLS sorts the books by route number and sends the books destined for the County on. Those books are dropped off at our Wellington Branch Library and Jenn, our ILLO master, processes them so they’re ready to go home with their respective readers. She wraps each cover in a green slip, which allows us to track the book when it goes out and when it’s returned.
When you bring that book back, we record the return in the ILLO system, take the green slip off, and bundle it back up with all the other ILLO returns to go back to the library that owns it.
The process sounds simple, but considering we bring in approximately 200+ ILLOs every week with just as many going back out, some days, Jenn feels like she’s drowning under books!
