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Can’t Find It? Ask InterLibrary Loan

Can’t find an item in our catalog? We’ll get it for you!

If you are searching for an item but can’t find it in our catalog, we can get it for you!

Complete the form below to request an InterLibrary Loan or recommend a purchase.

What is InterLibrary Loan?

InterLibrary Loan (ILL) is a service provided to our members to borrow materials from outside of York County Libraries. Your YCL account must be active and have no outstanding fees to use this service. You may have up to two Interlibrary Loan hold requests at a time. We will contact you when the items are ready for pickup. Please note: A $5 fee will be charged to your account for failure to pick up an item. Overdue fees are $1 per day per item. For more information click here.

What is Recommend a Purchase?

Use the “Recommend a Purchase” feature to suggest a title for consideration to be purchased and added to our collection. New titles will be purchased when appropriate for the collection according to our collection development policy. Otherwise, we will attempt to borrow the item from other libraries outside of York County via Interlibrary Loan. For more information click here.

Please contact illma@yorklibraries.org with any questions about your requests.

Frequently asked questions about InterLibrary Loan

Click any question below for more details.

York County Libraries members in good standing can utilize our Interlibrary Loan service. To be eligible, accounts must be active with no outstanding fees.

  1. Search for the Item in ChiliPAC
    If the item is not available, move to the next step. If it is available, place a hold on the material with your library card.
  1. Submit a request using the form below
  2. Wait for Pickup Notification
    The library selected on the Interlibrary Loan form will contact you either by email or phone call.
  1. Pickup and Return of ILL
    The library selected on the Interlibrary Loan form will be the location for the pickup of the Interlibrary Loan material. Please return the Interlibrary Loan material to the library you received it from.

If you need to cancel your Interlibrary Loan request, please contact illma@yorklibraries.org or call (717)849-6939.

You may have up to two Interlibrary Loan hold requests at a time. We strive to fulfill as many requests as we can. Requests for Book format, Large Print, Audiobooks, CDs, Graphic Novels, Articles, and DVDs are permitted.

The following items cannot be borrowed through InterLibrary Loan:

  • Titles owned by our libraries
  • Titles released within the last 12 months
  • eBooks and eAudios
  • Genealogical materials
  • Local History materials

If you submitted an Interlibrary Loan request and the material was released within the last 12 months, we will add it to our recommended purchase queue for consideration.

InterLibrary Loan requests are processed daily, Monday through Friday. After requesting materials from our Resource Sharing partners, we will place an InterLibrary Loan hold on your library account. It typically takes 2-4 weeks for materials to arrive, though some requests may take longer or may not be fulfilled due to availability or lender policies. Once the materials are ready, your pickup library will notify you.

When completing the InterLibrary Loan form, the pickup library you select is where you will collect the requested material. Please check our website for library hours.

Failure to pick up your requested material will result in a $5 non-pick-up fee.

Please return InterLibrary Loan materials to the library where you picked them up. If you return them to a different YCL location, please inform the staff at your pickup library. Remember to keep the orange checkout bookmark inside your Interlibrary Loan materials for returning. Do not place InterLibrary Loan materials in the drop box; please return them to the service desk.

To request a renewal, please contact your pickup library. We will send a renewal request to the lending library, which may take up to 7 days to process. If a renewal is not possible, we will attempt to request another copy of the material for you.

We will request your materials only from free resource sharing libraries. If we cannot find a free resource sharing library, we will contact you before proceeding with the request.

There is a $5 fee assessed for failing to pick up an item.

Overdue fines are $1 per day per item. Members are responsible for the cost of damaged or lost InterLibrary Loan items; the cost is determined by the lending library, with a minimum charge of $25 for lost items.

Copyright Information

The copyright law of the United States (title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

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