Amarillo Public is the Interlibrary Loan center serving the library users in Amarillo. ILL also serves the patrons of the public and special libraries in the top twenty-six counties. The purpose of Interlibrary Loan is to share resources for the benefit of our users.

There are two basic parts to this process, borrowing and lending. Borrowing is done to fill the request of a patron when the local library doesn't own what is wanted. Interlibrary Loan is a service to be offered almost anytime our collection doesn't have what the patron wants.

    After the request is taken, local staff searches the Harrington Library Consortium database to see if a library in our region owns the book. The request is then sent to the Interlibrary Loan department. The ILL staff then makes every effort to find another library, either in the region or elsewhere, from which the book can be borrowed without charge. A nationwide database called OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) is also used to identify which libraries own which books and which will lend. The lending library determines how long the loan period is and sets any fees or restrictions. Most libraries restrict loans of genealogy, reference and rare books. Amarillo Public does and so do the area public libraries.

    Amarillo Public and the region's public libraries lend approximately 16,000 books a year to libraries throughout the state and nation. Some books have even been sent to Europe. All the collections in the Harrington Library Consortium are in the OCLC database. Other libraries search OCLC just as our ILL staff does. They then ask Amarillo Public to lend them the books needed title. ILL staff maintains the records of what is sent where when. Interlibrary loan is grant funded through the Texas State Library.

All Interlibrary Loan requests are handled by reference staff at any
Amarillo Public Library location