PINES and Interlibrary Loan

Submitted by Jeff Fisher

Recently, several patrons asked for Forsyth County Public Library to join PINES due to the belief that this would end the need to request items through Interlibrary Loan.  PINES is the statewide library consortium of which most Georgia Public Libraries are members.  Most library systems that are not in PINES, including Forsyth County Public Library, are in the metro Atlanta area.  Chattahoochee Valley Public Library, which covers the Columbus area, is also not a PINES member.

Becoming a PINES member would not replace the need for Interlibrary Loan as mentioned in a recent patron comment.  The majority of titles requested and loaned by FCPL through Interlibrary Loan come to us from non-PINES libraries, including those outside the state of Georgia.  

Looking at Interlibrary Loan borrowing and lending in May 2022, only one of ten libraries we borrowed the greatest amount of material from was a PINES library (Dougherty County Public Library).  FCPL borrowed the largest amount of materials in May 2022 from Birmingham-Jefferson County Public Library in Alabama.  In May 2022, FCPL borrowed primarily from non-PINES public libraries, such as Atlanta-Fulton, Dekalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Bartow Counties, and three of the libraries we requested items from were institutions of higher education in Georgia.  Of the ten libraries FCPL loaned the greatest amount of materials to in May 2022, none were a PINES library.  Six of those ten libraries were out of state, including a United States Air Force base library in South Carolina.  

FCPL does use the free PINES courier for those items that we send to and borrow from all Georgia public libraries, including non-PINES systems, and University of Georgia member institutions.  These items are also placed back into the PINES courier for the return trip.  FCPL pays the shipping cost for lending to libraries out of state or from private in-state institutions, such as Emory University.  The Library also pays the postage to return items back to their home libraries that are out of state or from private in-state institutions.  FCPL always tries to borrow materials from Georgia public libraries or University of Georgia System libraries before requesting from other institutions to minimize shipping costs.