[ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

[Robinson, Arthur]

I've already told some of these stories:

 

(1)     An ILL request for a "large red book" a student had seen in a bookstore.  He didn't know the author, title, etc., but tried to show me with his hands the size of the book.

(2)     Another book  request, a little more specific:  "It had the word "Jesus" in the title."

(3)     A request for a 380-page article.  We had it in PDF in JSTOR, but the student decided it would be faster to get it on ILL.

(4)     A student came in with several articles he had printed from our databases.  He wanted me to get Japanese translations of all on them on ILL.  (His instructor had told him we could do that.)

(5)     The archives of a record company (57 boxes).

(6)     An item listed in the footnote of a book as "personal letter to the author."

A couple of stories from other ILL librarians:

 

(1)     One of  my  supervisors in library school told me about a patron who requested the Dead Sea Scrolls on ILL.  They asked her what she wanted-a translation? A transcription?  A facsimile?  No, she wanted the original Dead Sea Scrolls. 

(2)     This one was posted on the listserv in 2006; I pasted it into a file but forgot to include the poster's name:

My favorite recently is a patron who wants me to specify that the lending library guarantees that none of the books we borrow have ever been checked out by a smoker or a person who owns cats. 

 

Arthur Robinson (non-smoker but former cat-owner)


________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Chappell, Cyndi, JCL
Sent: Thu 6/4/2009 10:17 AM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...


Fellow ILL folks,
 
I am putting together an ILL Tour and Overview session, which will be attended by staff here at Johnson County Library (KNJ).  To spare them from an entire hour and ½ of dry procedures, statistics, etc., I'd like to throw some humor into the mix.  Would anyone care to share some examples of strange, funny, and-I-thought-I'd-seen-it-all types of requests you've seen come through your departments, either on the borrowing or lending side of ILL?  
 
Many thanks!
 
Cyndi Chappell
 
 
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