Union Catalog and ILLs

ILLs (Interlibrary Loans)

ILLs are part of the lifeblood of the WSWHE region, and we're so lucky to have such an amazing group of librarians who make it possible. ILLs allow us to expand our access to resources and get those resources into the hands of kids! WSWHE is legendary for being very generous about lending to each other. If you're looking for multiple copies, a research article, an item in another language, or just something that you don't have in your own library, there's a fantastic group of librarians here in WSWHE that can help you out.

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Daily vs Weekly delivery services

Districts have weekly courier service that comes through the Ballard Road conference center, which is how most ILLs and MultiMedia materials get to you. Most districts have courier services through Alicia Makenzie and Esther Humison in MultiMedia. (Schedule is here.) Some have their own courier (such as our bigger school districts) that run anywhere from weekly to daily depending upon the district.

Most districts also have daily service going between the Ballard Road Conference Center and their respective districts, thanks to daily BOCES bus runs from area high schools to BOCES campus buildings. Esther and Alicia at MultiMedia need your help getting that moving smoothly again. Reach out to Alicia (amakenzie@wswheboces.org) with any questions or concerns regarding the daily bags. It's a great service that would be great to keep going!

Graphic of concentric circles showing Inter-Library Loan layers

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Multiple levels of loaning and borrowing available to us

WSWHE BOCES SLS utilizes a variety of networks to facilitate borrowing and lending for our WSWHE component libraries:

WSWHE Union Catalog
CDLC (Capital District Library Council)
- CDLC allows us to borrow from other BOCES, academic, and public libraries in the Albany region of upstate New York.
- Librarians: you can ILL from CDLC directly; ask us for your login.
OCLC (WorldCat)
- Beyond the Capital region, WSWHE BOCES SLS can request materials from schools, academic libraries, and public libraries on the behalf of our librarians.

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WSWHE Union Catalog: How Tos

Make sure you have the most up-to-date URL for the union catalog.

This is the catalog we use in our region to handle the vast majority of ILL requests here. If you need one copy of something, or a whole bunch, this is the first place to look.

Here are screencasts for every step of the union catalog process. If you have any other questions, contact Karin. She can Google Meet with you if there are areas that are confusing.

How to switch between catalogs for ILLs (if you are assigned to more than one)

How to request an ILL

How to respond to ILL requests

How to add an ILL temporarily to your catalog (OPALS)

How to receive an ILL returned from another library (OPALS)

How to return an ILL

How to get ILL stats

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CDLC and OCLC

Q: I received an email about a CDLC request. What do I do?

A: If you can fill it, check out the item in your local catalog to the requester, click in the email to respond, fill, print out the email to use as a tracking slip. (You may want to print another copy for your records, or create a CDLC folder for requests in email.) Send the item to WSWHE SLS, with the tracking slip, and we will send it on for you.

If you can't fill it, respond to reject the request. It's better to respond with "no" than to not respond at all.

Q: How do I request an item from CDLC?

Use LiNX, which is CDLC's eForm (previously, this was known as CaDiLaC) . CDLC has tutorials here, or contact Karin if you have any questions.

Q: How do I request an item from OCLC?

A: Contact WSWHE SLS and we'll do our best to get the item for you!

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Any other questions?

We promise, no question is too small, and chances are, you aren't the first to ask. Whether you're new or a veteran librarian, WSWHE SLS is here for you. Just email Karin. We can Google Meet or whatever you need. After all, you can't solve a problem you haven't had yet.