Inter-Library Loan

As you begin looking for scores to study, you will undoubtedly notice Redlands has a pathetically small music library. But have no fear! Inter-Library Loan is here.

Basically, Inter-Library Loan (or ILL for short) is a system where we can check out books from other libraries around the country through our own library. This is extremely helpful for specialty items (like scores), hard-to-finds, and out-of-prints. Between all of the collegiate libraries that participate, you are almost guaranteed to find what you are looking for if it was ever published. The down side is, it can sometimes take weeks, even months to receive your items. I know I have outstanding requests from over a year ago that are still not filled, but that is rare.

First you need to find your score at one of these other libraries. What you need to do is go to http://www.redlands.edu/library.asp, and select Databases by Title. Then select the letter W, and find the database called WorldCat. There are a few other ways to find ILL stuff, but this is the only one I have ever used and it works well. Click on FirstSearch, to the right of the word "WorldCat"; this will take you to a log-in page where you input your Redlands information. Now you will see the WorldCat search page. This will look and function just like a normal library search system. Once you have a list of your findings, select the score (or recording, or book or whatever you are looking for) that you are interested in. Now, this is the most important step. Once you click on the item, you will see a page with a bunch of useless information like publisher, date, language, etc. However, there is one very un-useless piece of informat on this page which will make it possible for your item to be located. This is theAccession Number, and starts with the letters OCLC. Copy "OCLC" and the fowling numbers.

Once you have done that, go back to the Redlands Library homepage and select Interlibrary Loan. Now select the appropriate link for your media type (if score, select musical score...obviously). Fill in all of the asterisked information on the form. Most Importantly, paste your OCLC number in some line that you are not filling out, like publisher, edition, volume, or date. Now click submit, and you're done!

Redlands is currently working with a beta version of Illiad, which is much easier to use and keep track of. The process is much the same, you still need to look up your the piece on your own and paste the OCLC number. I have not used Illiad yet, so I can not attest to its effectiveness, but I assume either way will get the job done.

Now go find some scores! and please feel free to ask me any questions about ILL...I use it a lot!