Interlibrary Loan

The Portage Lake District Library houses over 50,000 items for check-out, including print books, audio books, movies, and music CDs. However, if you can’t find what you’re looking for within our collection all is not lost! The library also provides interlibrary loan services. This gives patrons access to millions of unique titles across many formats. How a patron requests materials from another library depends on a few different factors. See the information below for more specific instructions.

Can’t find a book in the PLDL catalog? Start your search in the UP with PII (Patron Initiated Interlibrary Loan).

The PLDL is a member of the Superiorland Library Cooperative, a collection of 55+ public and school libraries that share an ILS (Integrated Library System). Follow these steps:

  1. From the library’s online catalog you can search our collection. By default, your search will return items available only at PLDL.
  2. If you’re unable to find what you’re looking for through the PLDL collection, select the drop-down menu on the far left of the screen and choose Resource Sharing Libraries. The search results returned reflect the holdings of all the libraries in the Upper Peninsula cooperative of libraries.
  3. Click on the PLACE HOLD link in the item’s record.
  4. Enter your library card barcode and PIN in the fields presented and click on the Log In button.
  5. A dialogue box will pop-up and prompt you to now place the hold. Click Place Hold(s). Click Okay to close the dialogue box.
  6. You will receive a phone call when the book arrives.

No luck with PII? Try MeLCat (Michigan-wide search).

The PLDL participates in statewide interlibrary loan through the Library of Michigan and Michigan Collaborative for Library Services. MeLCat includes both public and academic libraries, although the level of participation and materials available vary.