Creating Interlibrary Loan Requests

You create an interlibrary loan request for a patron by converting a hold request to an ILL request. You may convert multiple hold requests at the same time. See Convert hold requests to ILL requests.

After an ILL request is created, it has a status of Active or Inactive, according to your library’s settings in Polaris Administration. If your library uses OCLC and the request has an Active status, it has been exported to OCLC and is in the queue. If the request has an Inactive status, you must review it and manually export it to OCLC before it becomes Active. See Exporting ILL Requests to OCLC.

The status of an ILL request indicates the stage it has reached in processing:

• Active - The request has been exported to OCLC and placed in the queue. If a requesting library chooses not to mediate (review) ILL requests, the requests are automatically Active when they are created. The PAC patron account displays the date when the request became Active.
• Cancelled - A Cancelled ILL request remains in the database and visible on Polaris workforms. The PAC patron account displays the date on which the request was cancelled. Cancelled requests can be deleted manually, at any time.
• Inactive - An Inactive ILL request has not been placed in the queue. First, the request must be reviewed and manually exported to OCLC by staff at the requesting library. If a requesting library chooses to mediate (review) ILL requests, the requests are Inactive when they are created. The PAC patron account displays Inactive since [date].
• Received - The ILL item arrived at the requesting library, and staff applied the Polaris receive function to the ILL request. When the request becomes Received, and temporary bibliographic and item records have been created, the item can be checked out to the patron. The request retains a Received status before and after the item is checked out. In the staff client, an ILL item with a Received status also displays the item’s circulation status; for example, Received-Transferred or Received-Held. In the PAC patron account, only the ILL status (Received) is displayed.
• Returned - The ILL item was returned by the patron and checked in. Staff applied the Polaris return function to the ILL request. When the request becomes Returned, the item can be shipped back to the lending library. The request retains a Returned status before and after the item is shipped. The temporary bibliographic and item records are deleted when the request is deleted from Polaris. The Returned status is not displayed in the PAC patron account.