
Leadership & Guidance
Resources for Libraries and Lifelong Learning provides leadership to Wisconsin libraries on resource sharing practices and procedures, and guidance on current and future policies.
- Coordinate interlibrary loan service for Wisconsin libraries
- Act as a clearinghouse for requests created on WISCAT
- Refer requests to the OCLC on behalf of WISCAT libraries
- Troubleshoot requests from WISCAT libraries.
Get the Wisconsin Interlibrary Loan Guidelines (2016)
Connect with your community!

Share and discuss procedures, ideas, and promotion tips. Anyone associated with Wisconsin libraries may join.
Subscribe to the listserv: send blank email to join-illwiscatlist@lists.dpi.wi.gov
Electronic Resources
Electronic resources are not available through interlibrary loan. Please use Wisconsin's Digital Library for fiction and nonfiction eBooks and Audiobooks, or Open Access Resources for ILL.
Genealogical Materials
Genealogical materials owned at libraries seldom circulate. Items that contain any form of the words "genealogy" or "family history" in the title or subject lines of the bibliographic record can rarely be borrowed through interlibrary loan. It is essential that libraries help their patrons understand the limitations on borrowing genealogical materials.
View Genealogical Materials and Interlibrary Loan for additional considerations and tips.
Newspaper Microfilm
Creating requests for newspaper microfilm can be tricky. Please consider the following before submitting a request.
- Include city and state in which the newspaper was published.
- Confirm the title matches the publication dates needed. Newspaper titles change over time.
- The Wisconsin Historical Society will loan a maximum of 6 reels per patron, per title.
Contact Us or your library system's clearinghouse staff with questions.
Standards
- NCIP: NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol: ANSI/NISO Z39.83 technical standard defines a computer-to-computer protocol to exchange messages between and among computer-based library applications to perform the functions necessary to lend and borrow items, to provide controlled access to electronic resources, and to facilitate co-operative management of these functions.*
- National Information Standards Organization Z39.50 Information Retrieval Protocol: ANSI/NISO Z39.50 defines a standard way for two computers to communicate for the purpose of information retrieval.*
- ISO ILL Protocol (10160/10161) This standard defines computer-to-computer communication between interlibrary loan (ILL) systems to send and respond to ILL requests by libraries using different, Protocol-compliant, ILL systems.*
- ANSI/NISO/ISO Standards from Auto-Graphics, Inc.
- Library of Congress Standards