Interlibrary Loan (ILL) involves the borrowing and lending of materials between libraries. Jefferson Parish borrows materials not found in the local collection on behalf of our patrons. In this way, ILL expands our library’s collection.
 | The guiding principle of ILL is resource sharing. It is virtually impossible for a library to be completely independent in serving the needs of its patrons, and materials are provided on a reciprocal basis among participating libraries. Books, periodicals, microfilm, and microfiche can be borrowed or photocopied. Jefferson Parish Library does not borrow or lead audiovisual materials (video recordings, DVDs, compact discs, musical and non-musical sound recordings). The choice of whether or not an item is available for borrowing is left to the discretion of the lending library; and they may choose not to loan rare or valuable materials, fragile or bulky items, best sellers, reference books, or local newspapers. Jefferson Parish Library will accept and process ILL requests only for people 18 years of age or older with a resident, military or consular library card. Patrons must have a library card in good standing. The maximum number of ILL request that can be made is 5 per day. Most items borrowed through ILL are available free of charge but occasionally a lending library will a charge a fee for an individual item. The patron pays this cost but we will contact the patron for approval before an item with a fee is borrowed. The other charge involved in ILL borrowing is $.15 per page for printouts of photocopied items. There is no charge for articles sent by email. You can only check out five ILL items at a time and the overdue charge for ILL items is $1.00 a day with a maximum fine of $5.00 per item. Two attempts will be made to borrow a requested item. If these attempts are unsuccessful, the patron will be notified that we cannot borrow the item, and the request is ended. We will either call the patron or make a note in the patron’s record. |
An ILL request usually takes anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks. The length of time depends on how long it take to find an available item and how long it takes the item to arrive here. The status of a request can be checked by contacting the ILL Department Monday through Friday between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM at 504-838-1114 or emailing the ILL Department at ILL@jplibrary.net.
ILL loan periods vary due to the different loan periods decided by the lending library, but 2 to 4 weeks is usually the loan period granted. All requests for renewal of ILL materials should be made to the ILL Department at least 3 working days prior to the due date. The time is needed to ask the lending library for the renewal. The decision about agreeing to the renewal and the length of the renewal period is made solely by the lending library.