ACRL/RBMS Guidelines for Interlibrary and Exhibition Loan of Special Collections Materials

The purpose of the standard is to help special collections and archives formulate appropriate policies and responsible practices for managing requests from other institutions to borrow materials from their holdings for research and exhibition loans.

The standard offers a set of principles and general guidelines for institutions to consider in formulating their own local policies and practices, whether those include lending physical materials under certain conditions or providing digital or other surrogates in lieu of physical lending. It also outlines the responsibilities of borrowing institutions in ensuring the security and preservation of loaned materials.

The standard outlines the respective responsibilities of borrowing and lending institutions and general guidelines for how they should cooperate with one another in loan transactions. The standard then provides separate sections that recommend procedures for managing borrowing requests for loans for research use, which typically come through interlibrary loan departments at academic institutions, as well as for exhibition use. The section on loans for research use is designed to complement the Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States maintained by the American Library Association, while the section on loans for exhibition use are designed to