Welcome!

Thanks to leadership and funding from the Illinois State Library and the Illinois Secretary of State, Illinois has an interlibrary delivery service that spans the entire state, making it one of the most robust and efficient interlibrary delivery systems in the country. Resource sharing has been the foundation of statewide library service in Illinois for over 50 years, allowing any Illinois resident with a library card to freely request and obtain materials from any other library in Illinois. This statewide delivery is facilitated and serviced by Illinois Heartland Library System, Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS), Chicago Public Library System (CPL), and Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries of Illinois (CARLI).

Welcome to IHLS Delivery!

In southern and southeast-central Illinois, Illinois Heartland Library System is the heart of interlibrary delivery, providing interlibrary pickup, sorting, and delivery of library items at no cost to the member libraries of Illinois Heartland Library System.

As members of the Illinois Library Delivery System (ILDS, managed by CARLI), IHLS Delivery also facilitates the transport of interlibrary loan items from IHLS-member libraries to RAILS and ILDS libraries and back again.

Funding for all Illinois library systems and interlibrary delivery systems—IHLS, RAILS, CPL, and ILDS—is provided by the Illinois State Library and the Illinois Secretary of State from revenue appropriated by the Illinois General Assembly or granted under the federal Library Services and Technology Act.

IHLS Delivery Service

IHLS Delivery provides interlibrary pickup, sorting, and delivery of loaned library items among the member libraries of Illinois Heartland Library System. IHLS Delivery consists of three regional hubs, each serving a geographic area.

For information on becoming a member library, see our Membership Criteria or contact Ellen Popit or Anna Yackle.

To learn about Community Delivery Partnerships and community drop points, please refer to the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State.

For information about delivery in the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) service area, please refer to RAILS Interlibrary Delivery. For information about the Illinois Library Delivery System, managed by CARLI, please refer to IllinoisDelivers.net. To learn more about the Illinois State Library and statewide delivery, please refer to the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State.

The IHLS Delivery Team sorts and ships
3.5 million* items annually
between IHLS libraries.

*Number includes FY2020, during which the impact of COVID-19 resulted in a significant decrease in materials delivered from the previous year.

Functional 5-Day Delivery

Functional five-day delivery service is provided to all Illinois Heartland Library System members at no cost to them through their free system membership. What does this mean for patrons? Fast receipt of requested items. If the requested item is available, an item could be at the requesting library location in as few as one or two days.

Some libraries are pre-scheduled for five-day item pickup/delivery, while other libraries have requested fewer days or on-demand-only delivery. At any time, authorized library representatives can contact their designated IHLS Delivery hub manager or submit a help request to request additional or fewer pickups as needed, either on a permanent or temporary basis.

Delivery On the Go: Same-Day Delivery for Down-Route Libraries

Items can be delivered to your interlibrary patrons even faster with Delivery On the Go. Delivery On the Go (DOG) enables qualifying items* to be delivered to the receiving library that very same day. *DOG deliveries are available to lending libraries when the requesting library is down-route from the item’s owning library and delivery is scheduled to arrive at the requesting library later that day.

Learn More about Delivery On the Go

Routes

Want to know what IHLS Delivery route your library is on? Find this--and other libraries along the same route--on our Routes page. Routes vary each day and change periodically.

View Routes

Delivery News

Read the latest IHLS Delivery News

Delivery Guidelines & Acceptable Items

For quick and efficient interlibrary delivery service that also keeps library items safe from damage and people safe from injury, IHLS libraries are asked to abide by a set of Delivery Guidelines.

View Delivery Guidelines and Acceptable Items

Unidentified Items

Are you missing an item? Does one of these items belong to you?

View Unidentified Items

Forms and Documents

Looking for a transit slip, request form, or another interlibrary delivery resource?

Forms

• IHLS Delivery Transit Slip
• ILDS Transit Slip
• Items Damaged or Lost in Transit
• "No Delivery" Request Form
• Quarterly Delivery County Form

Documents

• FY2016 Delivery Survey
• Illinois State Library Delivery
• Illinois State Library Delivery Map
• Illinois State Library Delivery Best Practices

More

• RAILS Interlibrary Delivery
• Member Libraries in L2