Bibliographic Verification of Interlibrary Loan Requests:

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requests must be VERIFIED or CHECKED AGAINST THE CURRENT EDITION of Books In Print [BIP] before they are submitted to the Region's Interlibrary Loan Department.

Verification is the process of using an authoritative bibliography (BIP, National Union Catalog [NUC], Cumulative Book Index [CBI]), bibliographic database (C/W MARS, OCLC), CD-ROM or indexing source to confirm that an item has, in fact, been published. This bibliographic source provides the information that the ILL Department will use to search for the requested item: author's full name, item title and subtitle, publisher, date of publication, Library of Congress Number, and International Standard Book Number.

The verification process includes accurate recording of this information on the request form.

Verification is a critically important part of the interlibrary loan process. It improves the reliability and speed of ILL and helps to ensure that the correct item is supplied. Verification is essential if your library is sending a request directly to an owning library.

Member libraries have several verification options:

1. The current edition of Books In Print or other standard bibliographic tool, as identified above. (An older edition of Books In Print may be used as the verification source, but if the title is not listed - and if it cannot be verified in another source - it must be checked against the CURRENT edition of Books in Print. If the library does not own the current edition, staff should call Regional Telephone Reference as explained in number 3 below.)

2. A citation from a periodical, newspaper, or other source that lists the author's full name, title, publisher and, where possible, publication date.

3. TRSS -- Regional Telephone Reference Support Service. Regional Telephone Reference staff at the Springfield City Library will check the current Books In Print and its supplements using the CD-ROM product BIP+, the C/W MARS data base or selected periodical indexes to help libraries verify Interlibrary Loan requests.

4. Libraries that are members of C/W MARS or are participants in the MLIN project must use the C/W MARS bibliographic record for verification information.

5. Internet resources such as Amazon.com may supply verification information.

If a library is able to verify the request in any of the above sources, the request will be accepted by the ILL Department. If the library is unable to verify the request but did CHECK the information against the current edition of Books In Print (either directly or by calling Telephone Reference), the request will also be accepted.

Requests submitted without any indication that verification has been attempted will be returned.