Why is Contra Costa County Library discontinuing fee-based Interlibrary Loan services?
Fee-based interlibrary loan (ILL) service is being replaced by a free, self-service model called LINK+. ILL service has traditionally served a very small number of Contra Costa County Library patrons, it has a slow turn-around time of 4-6 weeks, and patrons are required to visit a library in order to submit their request. Lending libraries often assess substantial fees to our patrons for each request, and this, along with the $5.00 per request fee charged by our library is a barrier to access for many library patrons. Traditional ILL requires individual processing and monitoring of each request by library staff and is a very labor intensive process. The cost of this service cannot be justified given the small number of patrons being served, and at a time when the library is facing serious budget constraints.
