ILL is an acronym for the most awesome-est of library services, InterLibrary Loan. Every library in the country should offer it (and if they don't - you can tell them that I said they suck). It essentially gives library patrons access to materials all over the country, and in some cases the world. Want to read that long out of print gem and your library doesn't own it? No problem! Your ever helpful librarian can check OCLC for you, and see if the book is loan-able from another institution. It's resource sharing at it's finest!The catch? Well, with dwindling budgets and rising postage costs some libraries now charge for ILL. Usually it's a reasonable fee. My library system is one of the few in existence that still offers the service for free - but we do charge the patron if the lending institution wants to charge us. But then? We always check to see if the patron is willing before saying "Yes, send it!"
This is long-winded introduction to a new feature here at the Bat Cave. My office is actually across the hall from our ILL department and I love wandering in there to see what romances we're receiving and sending out. I'm nosy as Hell, and find this sort of thing interesting, so every once in a while I'll post three titles that I discover when I wander across the hall to raid their candy dish. Without further ado, here are the romances that caught my eye today:
Renegade Love by Katherine Sutcliffe, out of print. Oooh, a western! A wagon train theme no less. Girl meets boy while traveling west and wonders if the object of her lust is a notorious outlaw. I've only read Sutcliffe's romantic suspense and missed out on the height of her historical heyday. Yo my western homegirls, is this one worth checking out? And neither here nor there, the old school cover art is truly 1980s-tastic. Not to mention the tag line....Oy!
Dark Ruby by Lisa Jackson, out of print. Before she started churning out suspense novels, Jackson wrote several historicals. This one is a medieval, book one in a trilogy, and has a truly soapy-sounding plot complete with a secret baby.
Emma and the Outlaw by Linda Lael Miller, still in print. Book two in Miller's Orphan Train series. Prim, proper and engaged heroine falls for a wounded man who turns up on her doorstep. Then the real trouble shows up when it turns out the wounded hunky-hunk is a wanted man. Geez. Ain't that always the way? Haven't read this one, and have no desire to. Engaged To Some Other Hapless Guy heroines tend to set my teeth on edge.Note to publishers: Notice how two of these titles are westerns? Ahem, just sayin'.
24 comments:
Oh, and forgot to mention, I'd be lost w/o ILL, cause as I've lamented on many occasions, my library sucks the big one.
The only one I've read is Emma and the Outlaw. I've read the entire trilogy. And while it's not as tight as her books are today, I still liked the entire trilogy. Sue me.
I love love InterLibrary Loan. I live in a small town with a small library, so they don't have alot of the books I read. Sadly I haven't used it in a few months, cause I've been buying books.
Lori: I know several readers who love this LLM trilogy. I mean, lurve it.
I think I might have one of them in the TBR...
LOL, just checked.
I have the other two books in the TBR! Just not Emma. Probably because the whole being engaged to some other schmuck angle tends to annoy me.
And I obviously have no problems skipping books in romance series....
I adore ILL. I've gotten books as far away as New York. My only problem with it is patrons can't understand the difference between an ILL and a hold. So no matter how many times I tell them they need to go to the reference desk to get it, they'll stand there staring at me and asking me to get it.
Like it would kill them to walk 20 feet?
Never been big on Westerns myself. Maybe it's because my parents took me camping a lot and I've smelled actual real life cowboys. Give me a well-scrubed "metro" city boy any day of the week. Nothing sexier then someone who doesn't reek of BO and cow crap.
Anna: I don't utilize ILL nearly as much as I should. I blame it on having a ginormous TBR mountain range.
Jami: Ah, but that is the joy of romance novels....the fantasy! Cowboy heroes don't smell like cow poop (heck, what's poop?) and smelling of horses and leather = sexy.
My favorite in historical romances? Nobody smells of BO and everybody has good, straight, white teeth. Ha!
And those Duke Of Slut English heroes who cat around with every whore in London before hooking up with the heroine? Not an STD among the lot. LOL
My library has ILL, they just no longer will allow patrons to get audio/video items. I've never used it before, since I didn't know we had it until today, so I don't know if they charge anything.
LOL I know. Though lately I've noticed that the slutty guys manage to have crude condoms made of seal skin or sheep intestines.
I've always had a thing for paranormals myself. Especially vampires. But even then I tend for characters that are blonds or redheads. Easier to put myself in their place. Ah - but I shouldn't go on otherwise I'll go into TMI area that I'd rather get into over on the X-Black Lace forum where I feel a little freer to talk about such things without shocking/grossing anyone out. (If someone else starts the conversation. For some reason I can no longer post new topics, though I can post replies.)
On a side note have you seen the blog Awful Library Books? It's a blog by a couple of librarians whom keep finding really out of date non-fiction books on their shelves. Like a finance advice book from 1974. Sometimes I argue for keeping the book - but most I agree need to be weeded. It's great for a laugh. I think The Love Bugs (a book on STDs) and the newest entry My Cat's In Love (even though I'm a dog person) are my favorite posts so far.
There's also a new "snarking on book covers" blog called Cover Junkie - I mention it cause she's looking for people to submit more covers for her to snark on and I thought maybe you might have a few for her.
Oh, you know what kind of romance novels I absolutely abhor? The ones where the so-called hero rapes the heroine and she ends up falling in love with him. Ug! The worse I read was The Garden Of Ruth. (Ruth being a famous Biblical woman - the first real convert to Judaism. Her speech to her mother-in-law is still used for people whom convert.) 15 year old girl is raped, then falls in love with her rapist's brother but he throws her over, so she goes back and tells her rapist she wants to be his concubine. *facepalm* UG and double UG! This is SO NOT a romance!
Damn you Jami! I foresee Cover Junkie being the time suck of a lifetime for me.
Isn't Awful Library Books great? Or is that awful? Either way, I friggin' love that site.
And ::headdesk:: blessedly the "hero" raping the heroine phenomenon is largely in the past of the romance genre....although it does rear up every now and then. I can think of two books in recent memory that featured it. One of which I actually read, and one of which I actually haven't.
*giggles* Luckily she doesn't update as often as Pop Sensation, but that's probably because she needs more covers. *nudge nudge hint hint*
And yeah, ALB is awfully good. There's also the web comic Unshelved. My branch manager got me hooked on that one.
I'm glad hero-rapes-heroine is on the way out. I'm all for a little dominance in the bedroom, but ONLY if she willingly consents and they play by the Safe, Sane, & Consensual rules.
My library has the interlibrary loan system - not that I've used the library for years (no offense since I am on a LIBRARIAN'S blog!) 'cause it hurt to much to have to return em'. I ordered a book once and it came all the way from New Brunswick. Now if you know your Canadian geography - that's half way across the country. Even the librarian herself was impressed that it came from that far.
It's a pity that all libraries don't have them.
And I've read all three of the LLM trilogy. At the time, I remember them for being the hottest books I'd read at the time. I'm not sure how the heat factor stands up now - since I've read many a hot one since then.
Our library stopped charging patrons for ILL about 2 years ago. The only thing is I'm limited to $25.00 worth a month and with postage costs going up (a little paperback on library rate is $2.26) I have to limit how many I send out. That usually isn't a problem since it's the same 4 or 5patrons who use it all the time.
We only do books and use Tennessee AGent which only lets me get book from other Tennessee libraries. What do you use to get books from other states? I took over ILL from a coworker who decided to move out of state suddenly and I literary got a 5 minute explanation about it.
Sam: It all boils down to ILL policies, which vary from library to library. Like someone already mentioned, a lot of libraries don't borrow AV materials (my library doesn't). Also, really "new" materials. For example, my library will not be loaning out our copies of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown right away.
I know for us, our first stop is to try to get the requested book from another library in the state. If that's not possible, then we cast the net wider. And sometimes we can't get the item at all. We have gotten some things from overseas, but it gets a lot more hit and miss once we leave the US.
Since ILL was dumped in your lap, I would ask your boss - or refer to your state library, which usually plays a hand in ILL services.
Kristie: Have you read the Sutcliffe? I'm really curious about that one. Maybe I should go pester Rosie as well.....
Renegade Love was the book that made sure I was a romance reader for life! I had never read a hero so dark and tortured but the heroine was all that was too innocent. I think it was the third romance book I ever read and it explains my search for the dark and tortured hero saved by love. I haven't read it in years but I have the original still with the cover falling off and the pages falling out.
So read it, read it, read it!
CindyS
Does LA county do this? Cuz when I ask for a book and they don't have it in the county they shrug and say oh well. Sucks! I need to ask. Thanks for the heads up chickie!
Cindy: Good enough for me! Off to scope out Paperback Swap!
Tracy: They should. Now, they probably will have certain rules. If the book is really new, they probably can't ILL it. Also, a lot of libraries do not ILL AV material. But if it's an older book? Yeah, definitely ask. In fact, ask anyway - because it never hurts :)
Tracy - they must because I've gotten ILLs from LA. If they send them they must receive them.
ILL is truly the most awesome of departments in a library - I work in Cataloging, btw, so there's totally no bias. :) Our ILLs are free (unless the lending library charges, at which point the patron is asked whether they'll accept the charge), but we're an academic library - I don't know what percentage of academic libraries versus public libraries offers free ILLs. Unfortunately, I'm currently in ILL withdrawal, since ours has been down (major virus issues, server go boom, that sort of thing) for almost two weeks now.
I LOVE the LA County library which allows me to borrow from any library branch within the county system (would that be intra-library loan?) Since LA is so big, many, many books are available. I can request books that are on order, before their release date, and will get it when it arrives. Now, IDK about what the county does beyond this.
Renee: LA has two massive library systems - the county one and the city one. M-a-s-s-i-v-e. But yeah, if you're ever looking for something that the county doesn't own? Definitely ask about ILL.
Library Girl: I worked a brief stint in ILL when I was in college. Lots of journal articles! Although I'm sure that's probably changed now that full-text databases have really taken root.
Thanks for the info. Usually the books I get from the library are older and not in the bookstores so this would be wonderful! :)
Ok, you've convinced me. Well, this post plus a boot in the arse by azteclady. I've just made my very first ILL request for an obscure book by TH White. I'm so excited! I wonder how long it'll take to arrive!
It appears that my library still provides this service for free, but I had to give them permission to spend up to $5 to get the book. Presumably, that will show up on my library card and I'll just pay it when the book arrives.
Sela:
Yeah! I'm so glad you asked about it, and really glad your library still offers the service for free. It really is major awesome, and also a great tool for writers. I know more than a few romance writers who take advantage of ILL to get their hands on research materials for their books.
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