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WISCAT Membership

WISCAT Membership Agreement 2025

Image of a ticket stub with the word FREE written acrossThe 2025 WISCAT Membership Agreement is now available for libraries to indicate their participation in WISCAT interlibrary loan and adherence to Wisconsin Interlibrary Loan Guidelines. This membership agreement was due to be submitted to the DPI Library Services Team by January 31, 2025. Failure to return this agreement by the due date will result in loss of WISCAT membership and access will be closed. Note: If your public library system uses centralized ILL, please complete this agreement as a system and list your individual participating libraries.

WISCAT interlibrary loan and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction staff support for statewide interlibrary loan is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. In 2025, the WISCAT license fee is waived thanks to this generous support through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Institute of Museum and Library Services logo with green starburst on left

WISCAT membership agreement renewals are not automatic. Libraries must complete a membership agreement each year to continue access. The WISCAT membership window opens in the Fall each year.

Contact WISCAT staff with questions about the annual WISCAT membership agreement.

Benefits of Being a WISCAT Member

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All WISCAT resource sharing functions are included with a membership, including:

  • Create and manage interlibrary loan (ILL) requests
  • Access to out-of-state library lenders
  • Optional patron-initiated interlibrary loan
  • Access to interlibrary loan reports and statistics
  • Add, change, or delete holdings interactively in the union catalog
  • Customize search and display screen options
  • Technical support and training
  • Download MARC records
  • Z39.50 access to the WISCAT Union Catalog from within your library's catalog
  • Make your Z39.50 compatible library catalog accessible in WISCAT

Libraries or clearinghouses using ILLiad or another ILL management platform

The ISO ILL standard allows WISCAT, WorldShare, ILLiad, and other ILL platforms to work together. This is intended to encourage sharing resources across platforms and provide the broadest collection of available information and resources to Wisconsin residents. Library Services Team staff will work to implement cross-platform communication to the extent the technology is supported by both the software vendors and the ISO ILL standard protocol.

  • Individual libraries using ILLiad (or other software) wanting to directly send requests to WISCAT libraries are required to be WISCAT members.
  • Public library systems using ILLiad (or other software) to refer requests on behalf of multiple libraries to WISCAT also need to be full members, along with those individual libraries.

Contact WISCAT staff for more information about WISCAT membership agreements, the WISCAT platform, or interlibrary loan.