Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service by which items not owned by the PAC Library can be borrowed or obtained from another library. 

Palo Alto College students, faculty and staff without overdue items or fines may request items through ILL. 

Books and articles from magazines, journals, or newspapers not owned by the PAC Library may be requested through ILL. Videotapes not owned by the PAC Library and located at the Northwest Vista College (NVC) Library, San Antonio College (SAC) Library, or St. Philip's College (SPC) Library may be requested through ILL. How much does ILL cost? Generally, there is no charge for ILL. The PAC Library pays mailing fees. The fine for an overdue ILL book/videotape from SAC and SPC is $.10 per day per book/videotape. The charge for a lost ILL book/videotape is set by the lending library and charged to the individual who received the book/videotape through ILL.

Items requested from NVC, SAC, or SPC arrive in 2 to 3 working days. Items requested from other San Antonio libraries arrive in 5 working days. Items requested from libraries outside San Antonio arrive in 7 to 21 working days, depending upon the geographic location of the lending library. ILL requests will be processed and sent as quickly as possible. You will be notified if your deadline cannot be met. 

An ILL request form must be filled out for each book, videotape, or article desired.

Requests for books must include the author, title, publisher, place of publication, and date of publication.

Requests for articles must include the full title of the magazine, journal, or newspaper, volume number, issue number, date of publication, author of the article, title of the article, and pages of the article.

Requests for videotapes must include the full title, producer/director/writer, place of production, and date of production.

Listing the source of your reference is helpful and can prevent delays in obtaining the book, article, or videotape.

ILL request forms are located also at the Reference Desk on the first floor of the Learning Resources Center (LRC). 

You will be notified by telephone or E-mail when the ILL item you requested is available.

ILL items may be picked up at the Circulation window on the first floor of the LRC in the Ozuna building. 

Lending libraries state the terms of a loan, and the ILL borrower must abide by these terms. Loaned books/videotapes must be returned promptly to avoid jeopardizing our relations with lending libraries. Because libraries generally do not loan the following items, we do not request them: multi-volume sets, textbooks for classroom use, rare books, manuscripts, audiovisual materials, reference materials, and entire issues of periodicals.

The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies of copyrighted material. Libraries are authorized to furnish a photocopy if it is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If an ILL borrower uses a photocopy for purposes in excess of "fair use," he/she may be liable for copyright infringement.

The PAC Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying request if, in our judgment, fulfillment of the request would violate Copyright Law.