Interlibrary Loan Policy

Community Libraries of Providence is a member of the Ocean State Libraries consortium, which means a library card issued from any OSL library will allow you to borrow materials from any OSL member library.

Rhode Island library users are able to borrow materials from non-OSL Rhode Island libraries and out-of-state libraries using the Interlibrary Loan service. The Interlibrary Loan service (ILL) is governed by the Library of Rhode Island standards. You can request materials through ILL at any Community Libraries of Providence location by contacting a library staff member. There is no guarantee that the materials requested will be available from another institution. There is no charge for placing an ILL request, but the patron is subject to normal fines and fees for overdue and lost materials.

Interlibrary loan requests are limited to five (5) items per week per patron. A patron may only have five (5) out-of-system ILL items checked out on their card at one time.

All our items set as “holdable” are eligible for interlibrary loan requests.