The Interlibrary Loan Center (ILC) at the Houston Public Library provides interlibrary loan service to libraries within the Houston Area Library System (HALS) and to cardholders of the Houston Public Library. This federal/state funded program enables patrons at any HALS library to request library materials not available at the local library.
Requests can be routed to the Houston ILC by phone and fax. If the material is available at the Houston Public Library or one of its branches, ILC staff will retrieve the item and ship it to the library via the U.S. postal service. Turnaround time is usually between 2-5 days for such requests.
If the material is not available from Houston Public Library, ILC staff routes the request onto a nationwide interlibrary loan system called OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). This system includes an electronic request service linked to a national union catalog containing the holdings of public, academic and special libraries in the U. S. Regional reciprocal agreements make "no charge" borrowing possible in most cases. Turnaround time for requests referred onto OCLC is from 2-6 weeks, depending on the availability of the item.
ILC staff notifies the library when material is being shipped to them by an OCLC library, or if the material is not available. At this time, these notifications are sent by mail. Hard to borrow materials are periodical issues, video/audio materials, recently published books, and genealogical publications. ILC staff can also do subject requests. Please contact Pat Lester for details.
Houston Area Library System
