Inter-Library Loans (ILL) at the KULeuven Arenberg
Library
The KULeuven Arenberg library’s mission is ‘‘to develop a
well-balanced collection for education and research, with
extended opening hours for students, an electronic library that
can be consulted at individual workplaces and the facilities for
guided self-education’’ (Annual Report, 2005). The recent
trends to automate standard processes, like lending and
receiving books, and to digitalize the library are aimed at
attaining this goal at the lowest possible cost. Furthermore, the
library is a member of the LIBIS-network, which manages the
library systems of the entire KULeuven and LIBIS-Net. LIBISNet’s
mission is to support participating libraries in their library
management and the services they provide, such as ILL. Like
any other ILL system, LIBIS-Net. supports on the one hand
that the KULeuven library borrows books and requests
journal articles that are not present in its collection, the socalled
outgoing requests, and on the other hand that the library
lends items to other libraries, the so-called incoming requests.