interlibrary loan

English

Etymology

interlibrary + loan

Noun

interlibrary loan (plural interlibrary loans)

1. (library science) A loan of an item (such as a book, article, or sound recording) between two library systems or similar institutions.

   Only one university in the country had the book they needed but they were able to get it sent to their local library via interlibrary loan.

   • 2016, Linda R. Musser, Barbara M. Coopey, “Impact of a Discovery System on Interlibrary Loan”, in College & Research Libraries, volume 77, number 5, →DOI, page 651:

     The Summon discovery service, as implemented at Penn State, prioritizes retrieval of online and locally owned material; therefore, it was not unexpected to observe a reduction in interlibrary loan borrowing requests by undergraduates.

Synonyms

• interloan
• ILL (initialism)