ILL Policy

Patron Eligibility

  1. Live, work, or own property in Prince William County or the City of Manassas.
  2. Are a non-resident paid card holder.
  3. Must have less than $20.00 in library fines or fees on your library record.

Requests for ILL Materials

  1. All ILL requests are placed in ILLiad. Contact any Prince William Public Library for assistance. Before contacting the library, please have your password ready so that staff may access your record.
  2. Patrons may pick-up their ILL at any Prince William Public Library location. EXCEPTION: Microfilm is for in-library use only at two of the full-service libraries: Bull Run Regional Library and Chinn Park Regional Library.
  3. Patrons are allowed no more than 13 active ILL requests.

Interlibrary Loans are accepted for:

  1. Books
  2. Microfilm/Microfiche (including Free Only Canadian microfilm)
  3. Photocopies of pages from books or articles from periodicals and newspapers
  4. Microfilm/microfiche
  5. Dissertations and Theses

ILL coverage

The area is defined as the United States (all 50 states) and its territories, (areas contiguous to the U.S.)

ILL requests are not placed for:

  1. Materials in the circulating collection of the PWPL with the following exceptions:
    1. Items where ALL circulating copies in the online library catalog show any status indicating that there are no active copies such as Bindery, Copy Returned, Damaged/Billing, Weeded, Trace, Lost, Missing, Not Available.
    2. Full-text articles from periodicals or newspapers from the electronic resource database. Those available from the electronic resource database are forwarded to the patron by ILL staff.
  2. Audiovisual materials: i.e. Audio CDs, DVDs, Ebooks and EAudios.
  3. Material with publication dates within the most recent 12 months. This is a general standard throughout libraries, which allows new material to circulate to the owning library’s patrons first.
  4. Current best sellers.
  5. Entire issues of newspapers and periodicals.

Waiting Period

Patrons must allow an average of 4 - 6 weeks for arrival of material from the time a request is placed.

Borrowing Charges and Loan Fees charged by lending library are:

  1. Established by lending library.
  2. Loan or article lending fees must be pre-approved by patron before the request is submitted.
  3. Some borrowed materials require prepayment of fees.

In-Library Use Only

  1. Use is determined by the lending library and is not available for check out.
  2. All microforms and some print material are subject to this restriction.
  3. Patrons will be notified of restrictions prior to pick-up.

Due Date

Determined by lending library or institution, following their due date policy.

Returning ILL Materials (Book-drop)

  1. ILLs may not be returned in the Book-drop.
  2. All items must be returned in person to the circulation desk at any PWPL branch.

Renewals

There are no renewals allowed for ILL materials.

Overdue Fines and Fees

  1. The overdue fines for ILL materials are $1.00 per day, per item, with no maximum amount.
  2. Fines accrue each day the Prince William Public Libraries are open.
  3. Fines do not accrue when the library is closed.

Lost or Damaged Charges

Patrons are billed for replacement costs of lost or damaged item(s) and a non-refundable processing fee of $5.00 per item.

Questions

For Interlibrary loan questions, please contact the ILL office: interlibraryloan@pwcgov.org or call (703) 792-4894, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.