We ask that you fill out the form as completely and as accurately as possible, including author's full first name. Supply all the information you have been able to elicit from your patron, as well as all you have been able to glean from bibliographic sources to complete the request. The more information you give us the more likely we are to locate the material you need—and the more quickly.
Try to develop techniques for drawing from your reader as much as he knows about the item he is seeking and the source of the citation. He must have some reason for believing the item exists, and we should be able to pass this information on to the potential lending library.
Verification
Check as far as possible to verify the accuracy of the information the reader gives you. We trust that you will verify citations as completely and as accurately as your resources will allow.
The ALA and NYSILL manuals (see [Appendix A]) both contain a listing of standard bibliographic tools and sources of verification. Verification sources not found in the standard lists should be cited in full. Remember that reference tools and abbreviations familiar to you may not be known to the librarian trying to fill the request. Please give full citation of the source of verification, including date, volume, series, and the page on which verification was found. That is, not just "NUC," but "NUC, 1968-72, 25:478." In a request for a periodical article, both the title of the periodical and the location of the article should be verified, and both sources of verification should be given.
If you cannot verify the item in a standard bibliographic tool, please supply a complete citation to the source of reference, including author's full name, publisher, date, and page of citation.
When libraries are unable to verify requests completely because their bibliographic resources and staff are severely limited, we will try to verify the information and to locate the item. If a request is hopelessly inadequate, with vital information missing or with incomprehensible abbreviations, we will return it for clarification.
OCLC verification
Please use caution when citing OCLC numbers as verification for interlibrary loan requests. The Council office and most of the libraries in our region do not have OCLC terminals. Include OCLC #, author and title, place, publisher and date, and Nassau-Suffolk and NYSILL locations where given. Be sure all information has been copied correctly.