Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan

If the item you’re looking for is not available within the Lehigh Valley Library System, and it is not suitable for purchase, we will attempt to borrow it from another library for you. Please fill out the form below. Note: You must be a resident of our direct service area (Bethlehem, Bethlehem Township, Fountain Hill, and Hanover Township-Northampton County) or district (Nazareth, Northampton, Hellertown library service areas), be 17 years of age, and have a current Bethlehem library card. If you have an Access card but do not live within our district, we cannot do an interlibrary loan for you; you must go to your home library.

Please request your interlibrary loan using the form below. You may also request interlibrary loans in person at the Main Library Reference desk, the South Side or Coolidge branch, Books on the Hill, or the Bookmobile, or by phoning the Main Library at 610-867-3761, ext. 399. We ask that borrowed ILL items be returned to the Main Library Circulation Desk, South Side Desk, Coolidge Building, Books on the Hill, or Bookmobile. No book drops or other library drop-offs, please.

We borrow print materials, audiobooks, music CDS, and DVDs. We cannot borrow reference materials, current textbooks, videogames or software, or copies of whole journals. We will also supply photocopies of journal articles, if these are not available via our databases, including those contained in foreign-language journals.

Checkout periods are 4-weeks, with no renewals for DVDs. We will grant two renewals for all other items. At times, a due date may be adjusted according to lending library direction. In such cases, you will be notified.

Items are checked out to your account upon receipt with shipping time and pickup time factored into due date. We notify you that items are ready for pickup via your preferred notice method. We are not responsible in the case of missed notices due to spam filters, malfunctioning or non-existent voice mail applications, or otherwise missed messages. We ask that borrowed ILL items be returned to the Main Library Front Desk, South Side Desk, Coolidge Building, or Bookmobile. No book drops or other library drop-offs, please.

Items can take several weeks to arrive. If you no longer need an item, please notify us as soon as possible. While BAPL does not charge for ILL requests, extra charges apply in some instances. If an item is not picked up, a fee of $3.00 will be charged. Occasionally, lending libraries charge borrowing fees. In such cases, we will discuss with you any additional fees that may apply before processing your request. Our usual $.20 per page copy fee will be added to printed article requests. Pick-up ten days (or sooner) from the date of request is possible with payment of $5.00 rush fee. All additional fees will be collected at time of pick-up and may be paid in cash or with debit/credit card.

If you have questions, please contact us at interlibraryloan@bapl.org or call us at 610-867-3761, ext. 399.

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