I Love Interlibrary Loan!

Bookish Beck hosts the #LoveYourLibrary meme on the last Monday of each month. I'm a bit behind as it is now February, but these things happen.

I read quite a bit, and a lot of what I read is backlist. I am also apt to go down rabbit holes when I discover an author or get interested in a new topic. This means that even though I have an excellent public library with a sizable collection there are books I want to read that they don't have on their shelves. This is where interlibrary loan (ILL) comes in. Admittedly I am biased because running this state-wide program is a major part of my job, but as a reader I love it.

Different libraries handle this service differently, but requesting ILLs is super easy at my public library. I log into the state-wide system with my regular barcode and password and I place a request for what I want. When it comes in I get a notice through the regular catalog notification process that it is ready for me to pick up.

In the past couple of months I have gotten these titles via ILL, mostly for my Century of Books project:

• A Voice from the Attic: Essays on the Art of Reading by Robertson Davies 
• Love Among the Chickens by P. G. Wodehouse (published in 1906)
• Esau and Jacob: A Novel by Machado de Assis (published in 1904)
• Buttered Side Down: Stories by Edna Ferber (published in 1912)

If you want to read something that your library doesn't have, ask them if they offer this service.