4.4 Circulation of Depository Materials including Interlibrary Loan

This section defines circulation and explains the principle of comparable treatment in public services as it applies to circulation policies and interlibrary loan.

4.4.A Definition of Circulation

Circulation refers to the distribution or transmission of government information products from place to place or person to person. Tangible items circulate in the physical environment either within the library or outside of the library. Electronic items may be disseminated online through online public access catalogs, web sites, e-mails, or some other technology. They may be pulled (meaning the user searches the online catalog or web site to locate the information and uses it), or the information may be pushed (meaning the information is automatically pushed out to the user through electronic means such as selective dissemination of information).

4.4.B Principle of Comparable Treatment in Public Services, Circulation Policies, and Interlibrary Loans

Your library has the option of establishing its own circulation policies for the use of depository materials outside the library. However, the principle of comparable treatment in public services of depository and non-depository collections should be used in determining circulation policy for depository materials. For example, if a library’s non-depository reference or microformat collections are non-circulating, select depository materials designated as reference tools or depository materials in microformat could also be non-circulating. Circulation of materials that cannot be easily used in the library is recommended. Examples include tangible electronic products for which a library cannot provide adequate hardware, software or user support.

Circulation periods, fines for lost or overdue depository materials, circulation to non-primary clientele and other circulation policies of your depository library are a local decision, however, the policies should follow the general principle of comparable treatment in public services.

Although interlibrary loan policies are a local decision, depository libraries should provide depository materials on interlibrary loan except for heavily used information products. All depository libraries should have a policy of providing photocopies of depository materials in traditional formats to other libraries consistent with that for non-depository materials.