Q. How do I get a title not owned by Baltimore County Public Library?

BCPL can attempt to get the item for you through our Interlibrary Loan service (ILL), which includes:

• Marina  -- a statewide lending cooperative and borrowing is free.
• OCLC   -- a national lending collaborative but borrowing has a cost associated with each item that is shipped.

You must have a valid library card issued by or registered with Baltimore County Public Library in order to request material through our ILL service.

You can use Marina to request materials from other Maryland public libraries. Or submit your request by calling or visiting any BCPL branch (https://www.bcpl.info/locations/index.html) or through the Ask A Question by email service. Please provide complete information about the item you are requesting (author, title, edition, publication date) and any deadline that applies, as well as your name, library card number, phone number, and desired pickup location.  

Brand-new titles or titles less than 1 year old may not be available through Interlibrary Loan.  For new titles, please consider filling out our Purchase Suggestion form (https://www.bcpl.info/books-and-more/suggest-purchase.html) instead.

Benefits of Marina:

• Marina draws from the collections of all Maryland public libraries.
• Customers can place their own requests electronically.
• Customers are able to track the status of requests through the Marina system.
• When the requested item arrives at the pickup branch, the customer is notified by BCPL's Polaris hold notification system.