Interlibrary Loan
When something is not available, the library can ask another library to borrow it. This is called interlibrary loan, ILL, and it is a free service for WCC students and employees.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a system of borrowing and lending books, articles, and media between libraries. WCC students and employees can use Interlibrary Loan.
If the WCC Library does not have a book or article at the moment, we can ask another library to share their copy with us. This is called Interlibrary loan and is a free service to WCC students and employees. Log into OneSearch to use Interlibrary loan.
How this works
Let's say you're looking for a specific book, but your local library doesn't have it. You can request it through interlibrary loan. Your librarian will help you fill out a form with the details of the book you want, like the title, author, and any other relevant information.
Your librarian will then send this request to other libraries that do have the book. They will search for a library that is willing to lend the book to your library.
Once a library agrees to lend the book, it will be shipped to your library. You'll be notified when it arrives, and you can go pick it up.
You'll typically have a certain amount of time to read or use the borrowed material, like a few weeks or so. After that, you'll return it to your library, and they will take care of sending it back to the lending library.
Interlibrary loan is a great way to access materials that may not be available at your local library, expanding your options for research or reading.
Whatcom Community College Library uses the OCLC service Worldshare, as seen through the national catalog WorldCat, to find books and articles that students and employees want but which we do not own.
Usually, there is no charge for using Interlibrary Loan. If there will be costs for a particular request, we will contact you before applying any charges.
Use Interlibrary Loan when you can't access the full version of what you're looking for in OneSearch. When an article says “Check for access” in OneSearch, fill out the Request form linked from the article. You can also start with a blank Interlibrary loan form for books you would like to read but which WCC Library does not have available.