The Ketchikan Public Library (KPL) offers Interlibrary Loan for the purpose of promoting the library’s mission:

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The purpose of the Ketchikan Public Library is to provide informational, educational, and recreational materials and services for the people of the City of Ketchikan and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. This is accomplished through development, maintenance, and promotion of materials, physical spaces, and programs responsive to the diverse interest and needs of our community.

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If the Ketchikan Public Library does not have the material that a patron needs within its collection, library staff will attempt to borrow it from another library via the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system.

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Interlibrary loans are available to any patron in good standing (i.e., card is not blocked for lost or damaged item charges, overdue materials, or incorrect address) who has been issued a current First City Libraries account. Interlibrary loans are not available to temporary cardholders.

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An ILL request is initiated by submitting a completed ILL request form to the Circulation desk. When requesting an item for interlibrary loan, the following information will assist library staff in locating and requesting the item: exact title of the item, author or editor’s full name, publisher, and date of publication.

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Some types of materials are not available for lending by other libraries and, consequently, the following will not be requested on interlibrary loan: reference material (e.g. directories, encyclopedia sets, indexes, standard library reference tools); bound volumes or individual issues of magazines and newspapers; software; rare, archival, manuscript or fragile items; popular books published within the last year; and books currently in the collection of the Ketchikan Public Library which are not listed as lost or missing.

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A library patron may have up to five (5) outstanding interlibrary loan transactions at any one time. This includes requests that are pending as well as materials that the patron currently has borrowed through interlibrary loan.

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The Ketchikan Public Library complies with Federal copyright law and CONTU (National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works) guidelines that established the following guidelines for copying for interlibrary loan:

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• Requests for photocopies must include the copyright warning and the library patron must acknowledge awareness of the copyright warning.

• The Library may request only a total of five (5) articles a year from the last five years of a specific magazine.

• The Library may request only one (1) article a year from any one issue of a magazine. The library lending the material sets the due date. Typically, interlibrary loan materials will be loaned to patrons for a three-week period.

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Library users are encouraged to return materials at the end of the loan period so that materials are not absent from the lending library for an unreasonable length of time. Renewals are only permitted if the lending library allows such an extension. Requests to renew an item must be submitted five days in advance of the due date for the item. The Ketchikan Public Library will request a renewal. Materials received through interlibrary loan may not be renewed or requested again for at least six months.

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Library patrons are responsible for any charges applied by the lending library including photocopy charges, postage for the loan of microfilm or microfiche, overdue fines, or fees for damaged or lost materials. Library staff will make every effort to notify the library patron as to any fees that will be assessed by the lending library. If lending charges are not paid at the time the material is picked up, they will be attached to the user’s circulation record and handled in the same manner as fines and other charges.

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A $1.00 per day per item overdue fine will be assessed for interlibrary loan materials that are returned past their due date. The library patron also is responsible for any charges assessed by the lending library for damage to an interlibrary loan item. If an interlibrary loan item is lost, the library patron will be responsible for the cost of the item, plus a $30.00 non-refundable processing fee. Library users who request an item via interlibrary loan and fail to pick it up upon notification by a library staff member will be assessed a fee of $5.00 for each unclaimed item, in addition to any fees or charges assessed by the lending library.

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There will be no charge to lend materials from the Ketchikan Public Library’s collection to other libraries nor will charges be assessed for overdue items. If an item is not returned by the borrowing library to the Ketchikan Public Library, the borrowing library is responsible for the replacement cost of the item. Ketchikan Public Library materials will be loaned to other libraries for six weeks with one 3-week renewal.

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The Ketchikan Public Library will lend photocopies of periodical articles or pages from books in accordance with federal copyright law. In order to insure that Ketchikan Public Library patrons have access to the latest materials, the following items will not be loaned via interlibrary loan: items added to the collection within the last year; books with long reserve lists; items designated as “high demand”; software; reference material (e.g. directories, encyclopedia sets, indexes, standard library reference tools); bound or current issues of magazines and newspapers; and rare, archival, manuscript or fragile items. Videos (VHS and DVDs) are loaned on a case by case basis.