My interlibrary loan request sat for 6 weeks before I learned the trick

I needed a 1982 oral history book for a project and figured the library would just get it, but it sat in processing for 6 weeks. Turns out asking the librarian to check WorldCat and request from a specific library cut the wait to 4 days. Has anyone else had luck nudging their ILL requests this way?

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the_jennifer22d ago

Gotta disagree with you there. Most librarians I've dealt with already check WorldCat before they even place a request, so asking them to do it feels like telling a chef to preheat the oven. The 6 week wait probably means the book was rare or the lending library dragged their feet, not that your librarian was sleeping on the job. I've had ILLs come in super fast with zero nudging, and others take forever no matter what I do. Maybe you got lucky with a librarian who had time to dig deeper, but I wouldn't call that a trick, just a bit of timing.