by Donna Gilbreth
Reference Librarian, NHSL

Our library neighbors to the west, in Vermont, are pleased to help New Hampshire libraries fulfill their interlibrary loan needs. However, they do have some procedural suggestions for us.

Foremost, if you are following the guidelines set forth in the New Hampshire Interlibrary Loan Protocol Manual (www.state.nh.us/nhsl/protocol/index.html) you will make interlibrary loan requests to New Hampshire libraries before going to out-of-state libraries.

If you need to send a request to a Vermont library, please mail or fax them an American Library Association (ALA) approved interlibrary loan form. Telephone requests are generally discouraged. Blank ILL forms are available for purchase from library supply vendors, or you can download and print a form from the ALA site (www.ala.org/rusa/stnd_illformprint.html).

Marge Zunder, Director of Library and Information Services at the Vermont Department of Libraries, requests that New Hampshire libraries verify citations before sending a request. If you do not have access to verification tools (Books in Print, FirstSearch, etc.) please contact the N.H. State Library for assistance in verifying the bibliographic citation. In addition, try not to target large library collections such as colleges. As in the New Hampshire Interlibrary Loan Protocol Manual guidelines, send your requests to smaller libraries first if possible.