[ILL-L] Borrowing contact / Lending contact

[Judy A. Davis]

Hi - I've always been confused by the designation of "borrowing contact" and "lending contact" - Please help me with their definitions.

Is the lending contact the person who processes the loans at a given library (i.e. loans the given library's books to other libraries)? 

Or is the lending contact the person from a given library who asks other libraries to loan their books to the given library?

I have always assumed the first (and the corresponding definition of borrowing contact, i.e. the borrowing contact is the person who, on behalf of a given library, asks to borrow items from other libraries) but when I call libraries I'm often transferred to the contact opposite from the one I've selected as appropriate.

Or is it that the borrower contacts the "borrowing contact" and the lender contacts "lending contact"?

On this last Friday in June could someone please shed some light on this long-pondered question?

Judy Davis, Resource Sharing Librarian
Gallagher Law Library
University of Washington School of Law