Interlibrary loan finds

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, March 2014; written by Tammy Dinsmore

We get many requests from other libraries and from our patrons here in Ketchikan for different types of materials through a program called Interlibrary Loan. Libraries send us requests for anything from copies of obituaries, to books, to DVDs. Our patrons are sometimes looking for a book to fill in a fiction series that they have started, others are doing term papers and need more specific research material than what we have available here in Ketchikan. For a small fee I am able to find most of the items they are looking for.

The items requested from other libraries run the gamut and come from all over the world. The most recent one that comes to mind is a request from a university library in Denmark for a children’s book. Unfortunately we were unable to send that one, but it’s still fun to see what others are interested in.

Recently, a rather large 2 volume set came in called “Modernist Cuisine at Home” by authors Nathan Myhrvold, Maxime Bilet and Melissa Lehuta. Over 450 pages comprise this set and believe it or not they are like an abridged version of the original “Modernist Cuisine” which is 6 volumes! It was a lot of fun to look at. It is a cookbook, but not just any cookbook. A lot of the recipes require a lot (and I mean a lot) of time. It’s cooking for the scientist. Even if I weren’t ready to try the new techniques required for the recipes it sure was fun to look at the pictures and just admire the work that went in to making them. I was sad to have to pack it back up and send it back to its home library.

We often get requests from other libraries for books on boat building and repair which I am able to send out for the most part, but I try not to send them out in the spring and summer when folks here in Ketchikan are getting ready for the fishing season. Just returned is “Boatbuilding with Plywood” by Glen Witt. It is an older book but is still relevant today. Patterns are included and it has black and white detailed drawings on building all parts of the boat.

Craft books are another area of heavily requested items. “Mushrooms for dyes, paper, pigments & Myco-Stix” by Miriam Rice is often sent out and tells how to extract substances from mushrooms for making dyes and pigments for paper and other textiles. We send out many knitting, crochet and quilting books as well.

Films are popular and we get requests for some of the older films that we still have in VHS format and for the foreign films in our collection. DVD series are very popular and we get a lot of requests from our patrons for those.

If you don’t find it here, please ask. We are often able to find that piece of sheet music you want or need or the book in the middle of the series that is missing from our collection.