Interlibrary Book Loan System
contributed by  Jeri Ames
  Public and university libraries often must use other libraries' collections 
to meet their own users' needs.  They do this through the Interlibrary loan 
process.  Your local library will take the information you provide, ascertain 
where a book is located, and formally request it from the owning library. 
Then, you must wait for the postal service to do it's work.

     Various cooperative agreements have been developed between libraries,
and they differ from state-to-state, interstate, regionally, nationally or 
internationally.  The borrowing library agrees to certain requirements, 
including monitoring the use of the book, and the obligation to return it to 
the owning library in unchanged condition by a specified date.  Sometimes 
these books may be checked out of your local library.  Other times, they must 
be read in the library.  Copying is usually allowed (under close supervision 
if the book is rare or fragile).  Some books will not be allowed to leave an 
owning library, but they may agree to copy specific pages and send them to 
your local library for you.  There may be charges for 
shipping/handling/copying.
 

    What is the advantage to you?  You may borrow lace books recommended
by Arachnes and determine which will be the easiest for you to learn from. 
Previewing books before you mail order them is a good idea, especially if you 
have a limited book budget.  And -- this may be the only way you can get to 
read out-of-print and rare lace books!

     Librarians have access to a whole spectrum of books on library policies.  I 
wanted to be sure this suggestion would be good for Arachnes far and wide. 
One book I referenced indicated there are agreements between libraries in 
North America (includes Canada/Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands) and beyond 
(Australia, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Israel, 
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). 
It is worth a try for Arachnes in these countries to ask locally about 
Interlibrary Book Loans.

     You should go to your library prepared to provide information about yourself, 
plus:  Author(s), Title, Publisher, Edition, Date of Publication, and ISBN or 
Library of Congress Number of the book(s) you wish to borrow.  Your library 
should be able to tell you in advance if there will be a fee, and what the 
maximum you will have to pay would be.

IOLI members may borrow books from  IOLI Book Library