An Interlibrary Loan (ILL) transaction is a request to borrow material not owned by the West Hartford Public Library system. This service is available to individuals with valid Connecticut public library cards.
A library cardholder may submit up to three Interlibrary Loan requests per week.
There is no fee for an Interlibrary Loan transaction. However, customers must agree in advance to pay any postage and/or insurance costs which may accrue when items are mailed to WHPL for customer pick-up. Payment is due when the item is received by the customer.
The average time to receive an item through Interlibrary Loan is 2-3 weeks. Customers will be notified when an item is available for pick-up.
Some items may not be requested through Interlibrary Loan. These include entertainment DVDs and videos, photocopies of magazine or journal articles and reference or non-circulating materials.
Audiovisual items, such as audiobooks, music cds and cassettes and nonfiction videos, may be requested only from local libraries who participate in the CONNECT or reQuest systems.
Please note that it is often very difficult to obtain materials published within the last 12 months.
Loan periods for materials received on Interlibrary Loan are determined by the lending library. If more time is needed, a renewal request should be initiated as soon as possible by resubmitting the original request through the staff at the Information Desk.
Procedure for Submitting Requests
To submit a request for an item through Interlibrary Loan, please call or visit the Information Desk at the Main Library or either of the branch libraries to fill out a pink request form during regular library hours.