Senior Interlibrary Loan Specialist

Senior ILL work involves the requests that less-experienced staff escalate — international borrowing, fragile or special-collection materials, complex copyright issues (especially around document-delivery fee structures), and the cross-institutional negotiations that consortia ILL arrangements require. The specialist works the ILL platforms (OCLC ILLiad, RapidILL, WorldShare ILL) deeply, manages vendor and partner relationships at the senior level, and supports junior staff with senior judgment. Complex requests fulfilled and program-quality metrics are the operating measures.

Variance is real: at large research libraries the senior ILL specialist works within structured resource-sharing teams; at smaller libraries the role often serves as the entire ILL function with senior expertise. The copyright-and-licensing dimension matters substantially at the senior level — section 108 and licensing arrangements with publishers create significant compliance and economic considerations.

This work fits people who are deeply ILL-fluent, comfortable with copyright text, and patient with the cross-institutional coordination senior ILL involves. LSSC, MLIS, and ALA RUSA STARS credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the modest pay typical of library senior-specialist positions and the often-narrow employment field for senior ILL expertise, balanced against the path into broader resource-sharing management for people who develop the discipline.