Receiving ILL Items
When your library receives an ILL item from a supplying library, you must determine the following:
- which request the item is meant to fill
- whether the item must be returned to the supplying library
Typically, you can determine this information from the printout that accompanies the ILL item from the supplying library. This printout contains information about the item, requester and supplier (see ILL E-mail Messages). If this documentation does not accompany the item, you can search the pending request file to determine which request the item is meant to fill.
Once you have determined this information, you must do one of the following, as appropriate, to prepare the item for pickup by the patron:
For more information, see How Receiving an ILL Item Works below.
ILL Statistics
ILL keeps track of various ILL statistics based on the dates that requests are filled. ILL uses the date that an ILL request record is transferred to the filled requests file as the date that the request is filled. Therefore, it is important to transfer request records as soon as items are received.
How Receiving an ILL Item Works
Non-returnable Items
When you receive an ILL item that does not need to be returned, ILL moves the request from the pending requests file to filled requests file and removes the virtual item record from the requester's patron record. No further system action is necessary on this item.
Returnable Items
When you receive an ILL item that needs to be returned, ILL does the following:
- Moves the request from the pending requests file to the returns file.
- Adds an entry to its file of ILL items on the holdshelf.
Additional system action is needed on the request:
- When you check out the item to the requester or clear the ILL holdshelf, the system removes the item from the holdshelf.
- When you return the item to the supplying library, the system removes the virtual item record from the requester's patron record.