additional credit if replies are transmitted promptly.

DIRECT ACCESS TO OTHER LIBRARIES

Both the Nassau Library System and the Suffolk Cooperative Library System have policies of direct access, including borrowing privileges, among the public libraries within their respective counties. A reader may find another library convenient; remind him to check with his local public library for details.

Other alternatives to interlibrary loan include:

Location service

It may be more practical for some readers to use books and periodicals at the library which holds them rather than request them on interlibrary loan. For periodicals, you may refer readers on the basis of the Nassau-Suffolk Union List of Serials. Please check the list of participating libraries in the front of volume 1 which notes some limitations of public access to materials in certain libraries.

For monographs, call LILRC and ask for a check of a few libraries in the microfilms of card catalogs to get locations for needed items.

Research Loan Program

Through this program, patrons of participating libraries have direct access, including circulation privileges, to specific subject area collections in other participating libraries. In lieu of numerous interlibrary loan requests, libraries may wish to recommend their readers take advantage of this program. The latest LILRC membership list indicates libraries which have joined this program. Details are available in all participating libraries and from LILRC.

INFORMATION NETWORK SERVICE-How it works

Requests are received daily from participating libraries by teletype and on LILRC interlibrary loan forms by mail and delivery service. A limited number of urgent requests may be received by telephone. All requests are transcribed onto LILRC request forms if they have not arrived on that form.

All requests are checked to make sure that all necessary bibliographic information has been given. If a glaring error or omission can be corrected easily, the INS clerk will do so and process the request. If the error is not easily corrected, the request is returned to the requesting library for clarification.

When a monograph request is received, the clerk checks the appropriate catalogs in the data bank of library card catalogs in microfilm in the LILRC office (or calls libraries for materials not listed in the catalogs). For serials the clerk checks the Nassau-Suffolk Union List of Serials and other tools. When an item is located, the clerk calls, teletypes a message, or sends a copy of the request to the prospective lender to see if the item is actually available.

The INS staff tries to maintain a balance between locating the needed items most efficiently and at the same time spreading the load so that the larger libraries are not overburdened with requests and so that all libraries are given a chance to build up credits.

Each time we check with a prospective lender, a notation is made on the interlibrary loan form indicating the library's name and response. If "yes," arrangements are made for pickup. If "no," the search goes on. "Maybe" takes a little longer; although the item is in the catalog, the shelf must be checked to see if the volume is available for loan or photocopying.

When a loan is arranged, the clerk prepares the interlibrary loan forms (still intact) for the driver. Having begun her run in the morning, delivering books and copies picked up the previous day, the driver returns to the LILRC office in the early afternoon with that day's deliveries and pickups. The driver collects the day's batch of slips and prepares her itinerary for