Leadership & Guidance
The Library Services Team 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 (2021)
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
Book Kits
View Book Kits available for loan throughout Wisconsin.
Perfect for public library book clubs, K-12 classrooms, and reading circles, the kits contain multiple copies of a single title and often include a discussion outline. Many titles can also be used with BadgerLink resources such as TeachingBooks and NoveList.
Contact Us to add your kits to the list.
Early Literacy Kits
View Early Literacy Kits available for loan throughout Wisconsin.
Appropriate for ages 0-2 and 3-5, these kits provide pre-planned story times on popular themes, and contain several different book titles and other items. Great for childcare centers, classrooms, and homes.
Contact Us to add your kits to the list.
In Constant Demand
View the In Constant Demand titles, typically not available for loan. The list is reference for ILL staff to determine if it is appropriate to submit a request for an item.
This frequently updated list contains popular and newer titles published within the last 12-18 month including books, audio books, and visual formats. Titles are gathered from the NY Times Best Seller list, Amazon Bestsellers, and Audible Audio Books Bestsellers.
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