All requests are checked to make sure that all necessary bibliographic information has been given. If a glaring error or omission can be corrected easily, the INS clerk will do so and process the request. If the error is not easily corrected, the request is returned to the requesting library for clarification.
When a monograph request is received, the clerk checks the appropriate catalogs in the data bank of library card catalogs in microfilm in the LILRC office (or calls libraries for materials not listed in the catalogs). For serials the clerk checks the Nassau-Suffolk Union List of Serials and other tools. When an item is located, the clerk calls, teletypes a message, or sends a copy of the request to the prospective lender to see if the item is actually available.
The INS staff tries to maintain a balance between locating the needed items most efficiently and at the same time spreading the load so that the larger libraries are not overburdened with requests and so that all libraries are given a chance to build up credits.
Each time we check with a prospective lender, a notation is made on the interlibrary loan form indicating the library's name and response. If "yes," arrangements are made for pickup. If "no," the search goes on. "Maybe" takes a little longer; although the item is in the catalog, the shelf must be checked to see if the volume is available for loan or photocopying.
When a loan is arranged, the clerk prepares the interlibrary loan forms (still intact) for the driver. Having begun her run in the morning, delivering books and copies picked up the previous day, the driver returns to the LILRC office in the early afternoon with that day's deliveries and pickups. The driver collects the day's batch of slips and prepares her itinerary for the next day.
Copies of the interlibrary loan form are used as follows:
| Serials | Books | |
| white | Sent to lending library | pink |
| yellow | Inserted into each book delivered to borrowing library or clipped to copy of article | yellow |
| pink | Filed by name of borrowing library in LILRC circulation file, used for statistics, then filed | white |
| gold | Returned to borrowing library with bill unless retained by library before submitting request to LILRC | gold |
If an item is not located at a member library, the request is considered for transmission to the State Library in Albany and the NYSILL network or to the Regional Medical Library network. Certain categories of requests may be submitted to the State Library but are not normally eligible for transmission to NYSILL, such as: fiction, text books, current publications and those in popular demand, rare books, genealogy, children's books, multi-volume sets, reference books, non-research books (self-help, recreation, etc.). Interlibrary loan librarians should familiarize themselves with the NYSILL manual (see [Appendix A]) so they will know what to expect when we send requests to NYSILL for them.
Each day, the requests not located on Long Island are teletyped to the State Library in Albany. If available, the book or copy will be sent from the State Library or the library to which it has been referred, directly to the requesting library whose name and address have been coded into the NYSILL transmission format. Medically-oriented requests are sent to the Regional Medical Library network via the Medical Research Library in Brooklyn and may be sent to the requesting library directly or via LILRC.