Lending Our Books To Other Libraries - Frequently Requested Items

Posted by the Reference Staff

One of the many valuable services the library provides for our patrons is interlibrary loan.  The Edwardsville Public Library is part of the Illinois Heartland Library consortium, one of the largest library consortia in the country, but even so, sometimes a patron requests a book that none of our partner libraries own.  What then?  The library passes the request to OCLC, the world's largest library cooperative, and a library from another state or Canada can fill the request.  Generally, these requests are limited to books - most libraries prefer not send audiovisual items through the mail. The Reference Desk handles interlibrary loan, but any Edwardsville patron can find and request items from home using the WorldCat link on our website.  Happily, we are able to obtain most items within a few weeks.

Because we are a member of OCLC, we also receive requests to lend our items to libraries around the country.  On average we send out 12 books per week.  The requests are diverse and include all types of books, including items from the youth library.  There are a few titles that seem to travel more than expected.  Listed below are some of our most popular OCLC requests:

Plain Again by Sarah Price. Only weeks after being married, Amanda is back at her parents' farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to tend to her ailing father while Alejandro is back on the road performing for his adoring fans.

It's Just My Nature: A Guide to Knowing and Living Your True Nature by Carol Tuttlemethod for assessing your personality and behavioral tendencies with a new system called Energy Profiling TM. Energy Profiling is a unique system that helps define personality traits, as well as human behavior and physical characteristics, to reveal the true you.

Eating in the Raw:  A Beginner's Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier and Living Longer by Carol Alt.Eating in the Raw begins with Carol Alt's personal story and then presents practical, how-to information (including lots of recipes) on starting a raw food lifestyle.

Power to the People: Russian Strength Training for Every American by Pavel Tsatsouline. How would you like to own a world class body-whatever your present condition- by doing only two exercises, for twenty minutes a day?Check out this book and find out how!>

The Ringing Cedars of Russia series by Vladimir Megre. An intriguing series of books describing the travels of a Russian entrepeneur and his subsequent metaphysical journeys.


No Mere Bagatelles by Jeffrey Sussman.  A dramatic (self-published) account of the lives of Judith and Gerson Leiber, both artists and fashion icons.


Poor Man's James Bond by Kurt Saxon.  Sadly, we no longer own this book, but it was wildly popular.  Now geared for use by the Civil Authorities, it contains paramilitary knowledge collect and studied by dissident groups throughout America.