Cancel

Know when and how to cancel a request.

You may decide to cancel a request:

• After checking local holdings
  If something is available through your library's collection, your library's databases, or through patron-initiated borrowing, you may want to let the patron know how to access the item that way instead of through ILL.
• After searching & verifying
  Do you have enough information to place an interlibrary loan request? Does the information in the request look inaccurate? Did you find the full text of the item for free online?
• After a request is unfilled
  Was the request not found as cited and unverifiable? Is the item non-circulating or in special collections at all owning libraries? Is the volume or issue of a journal not available? Is a book too new to be widely owned, or too popular to be available at present?

Decide how you are going to communicate with your patrons and be consistent in your communication.

Always give the patron as much information as you can about an unfilled request, including the reason it was unfilled (if you know it) and an alternative method of getting the material (even if it is by travelling to the owning library or a library nearby, or contacting the author of an article or conference paper directly).

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