1. General Information
The Tarpon Springs Public Library supports resource sharing, or interlibrary loan (ILL), and conforms to the guidelines of the National Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States, approved by the Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association, Feb. 8, 1994, revised 2008, as well as the ILL policies of the Florida Library Information Network.
Borrowing and lending of materials takes place using three different methods:
- Placing holds in the local Pinellas County (“PALS”) library catalog.
- OCLC’s Florida Navigator Resource Sharing Service initiated by library reference staff.
- OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing Services initiated by library reference staff.
Of the aforementioned methods, the first two allow patrons to request items independently; the third is performed by trained library staff.
The library does not participate in international resource sharing.
2. Borrowing
Patrons are limited to five active OCLC ILL requests (WorldCat plus Navigator combined) per library card.
ILL services are generally free of charge to Tarpon Springs Public Library patrons in good standing with valid library cards. Expenses for which patrons are responsible are:
- Late fees, which are consistent with local late fees.
- Lost charges, which are dictated by the lending library.
- Lending, shipping, or photocopying fees charged by lending libraries which are first approved by the patron before accrual.
The library will attempt to borrow materials in all formats: books, audio-visual, and microform, and to acquire copies of cited articles.
The library cannot borrow:
- Entire periodicals.
- Items published in the current year.
- Items from outside Pinellas County when they are available from libraries within the PALS catalog.
The library will handle all communication with the lending library for ILL services. Patrons who have any ILL questions should contact the staff of the Tarpon Springs Public Library and not the lending library.
Reasons that patron requests for materials may not be permitted by library staff include the aforementioned policies, as well as the patron’s habitual abuse of ILL privileges as determined by library staff, including (but not limited to) lost items or excessive late fees. Patrons may lose their interlibrary loan privileges completely.
3. Lending
The library will lend books and audio-visual materials, and will make photocopies of articles, all free of charge. Consult the library’s Circulation Department, Reference Department, or OCLC Policy Directory for loan policies of specific types of materials.
4. Affiliations
The Tarpon Springs Public Library is a participating member of:
- Pinellas Public Library Cooperative (PPLC)
- Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC)
- Distance Learning Library Initiative (DLLI) Florida Library Delivery
- Florida Library Information Network (FLIN)
- Lyrasis SOLINE Group (SL#N)
- Lyra Resource Sharing Group (LYRA)
- SO6 Resource Sharing Group (SIXX)
- Libraries Very Interested In Sharing (LVIS)
The library’s OCLC symbol is FTP.