Any library in the Southeastern New York region (comprising Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan, Putnam and Rockland counties) can participate in SEAL.
If you are interested in joining SEAL, contact the Southeastern Office at 845-883-9065 ext 115, or by email at ill@senylrc.org. We will tell you more about how SEAL works and walk you through the registration process.
There is no cost to participate in SEAL. However, there are normal inter-library loan shipping costs incurred when using UPS, FedEx, or USPS to mail items.
If you want to know whether a particular library is participating, you can check the SEAL ILL Directory. The directory lists all current participants, and includes email addresses and phone numbers for each member. Libraries are displayed alphabetically. To locate a specific participant, you can search using the search bar along the top of the page. There is also a drop-down menu where you can sort and view libraries by their individual system.
A few SEAL members have reported an occasional issue with logging in. If you are having an issue logging in, first check that you are logging in with your SEAL username and not your account email. Our logins are also case sensitive.
Some SEAL users have reported a particular login issue where they have to enter their login information twice to sign in. One culprit for this issue can be browsers having saved login information that is not accurate. If you encounter this error, check to see if you have any saved login information for SEAL in your browser. If so, you can delete the saved login which should prevent you from having to log in twice in the future. (If you have been a long-time SEAL user, you might have multiple logins associated with SEAL or senylrc. It would be a good idea to remove all of these to ensure these older logins aren’t contributing to this particular issue.)
See below for instructions on how to locate and remove login information from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge.
To view saved passwords in Mozilla Firefox, first click on the menu option in the right-hand corner. From there, click Passwords. Your saved passwords will show up along the left-hand side of the screen. There is also a search bar along the top of the page. One quick way to find SEAL passwords is to search by Southeastern’s domain name – senylrc.org. Once you locate a password, options to remove or edit the login will be visible along the top of the screen.
To find your login information in chrome, click the three dots on the far right-hand side to access your menu. From there, click settings. Locate and select the option for passwords under the autofill section. This will open a list of your saved passwords. There is also a search bar along the top of the page which can be used to locate a specific login. You can remove a saved login by clicking on the three vertical dots and selecting “remove”.
Lastly, to find your saved passwords in Microsoft Edge, first click the three dots on the far-right hand side of the page. From there, choose the settings option. Clicking this will open a user profile. You can select the option passwords to view saved login information. Similarly to the other browsers, you can search for a particular login here along the top of the page. To remove a specific login, click on the three horizontal dots and select “delete” from the drop-down menu.
If you have forgotten your username, or the email affiliated with your account, you can contact Southeastern and we will provide that information to you. If you forget your password information, you can reset it using your email address or username. On the SEAL homepage, hit Staff login. Click the option Request New Password and type in your email or username. You will receive a link via email that will let you log in and reset it.
If your library is ever unable to fill SEAL requests, you can suspend your account temporarily. To do so, head to My Account and click the option Library Lending Profile. In this window, there will be an option to suspend your library's lending status. You should change your status to "yes", indicating you want to stop receiving ILL requests. This action will remove your library as an option in the drop-down menu at the request screen. You can set a date for the suspension to end, and your account will automatically become active again. If you don't indicate a re-start date, you will automatically become active again after a week.
When you log into your account, there will be a small button that says edit over your name and institution information. If you click this button, it will open a new screen where you can change your account email and password. If you make any changes to this page, be sure to hit save at the bottom of the page before exiting.
You can change the email lending requests are sent to in your Library Lending Profile. There is an option in the profile called “Library ILL Email”. You can key in the desired email there, and then click submit at the bottom of the page. Once you have updated the email, all requests that are placed to your library will be sent to that address. Many libraries choose to use a shared email for lending so multiple people can access the requests.
In the summer of 2020, categories were added to the search screen. SEAL acts as both a regional discovery tool (similar to Worldcat) and the catalog for inter-library loan. This drop-down menu allows you to choose the way you want to interact with the catalog. If you would like to search all libraries in SEAL – including those that do not participate in inter-library loan -- you can select “all” from the menu. The other options allow you to search all lenders, or particular library types such as academic, public, and school. The default search is set to “All Lenders”.
The SEAL catalog can sometimes be a little quirky. It runs through an information retrieval protocol called Z39.50, which can occasionally result in inconsistent or unpredictable search results. Z39.50 performs live searches of library’s catalogs, so sometimes server or other technical issues can impact your results. If you do a search and items don’t seem to be displaying correctly, there are a few things you can try. You can refresh the page, close your browser and re-open it, or go into your browsing history and delete your recent browsing history and cached files. This brief article from Indiana University details how to delete browsing data from each type of internet browser.
When requesting periodical articles from SEAL, there is a drop-down menu to indicate copyright status. You have two options: CCG (Compliance CONTU Guidelines) and CCL (Compliance Copyright Law), which relate to the current copyright status of the item in question.
CCG refers to the CONTU Guidelines, which were made to prevent ILL being used as a substitute for periodical subscriptions. You choose CCG if: the article you are requesting is less than five years old, and if it is the fifth or less request you’ve made from that particular journal in the last calendar year.
Choosing CCL, on the other hand, indicates the article is protected by Copyright Law. You choose CCL if an article is: older than five years old, owned by your library, or the sixth or greater request you’ve made from a journal in the calendar year. If it is the sixth or greater request, you will need to pay a copyright fee to the Copyright Clearance Center for use.
There are a few different reasons why you might get this message. The SEAL catalog was designed to serve two distinct purposes. It acts as a regional discovery tool for Southeastern NY, including holdings from over 400 libraries. It also serves as the catalog for regional ILL. Currently, about 177 libraries in the region are active SEAL participants. If a library is not a SEAL participant, their holdings won’t show up in the drop-down menu. As a result, sometimes items can appear to be available at the title screen, even though there are actually no participating SEAL libraries with that item. To avoid this issue, make sure the catalog is set to the category "All lenders" when you search for an item.
Another reason this message might appear is because of item filtering. Libraries can choose to turn on / off lending for certain types of materials. Many libraries cannot lend electronic materials due to licensing restrictions. Some also choose not to lend AV, special collections, or reference materials due to their fragility or relative irreplaceability. The automated filtering prevents libraries from receiving requests they are unable to fill.
This message can also occur if a participating library has lending turned off. SEAL has an option allowing libraries to temporarily suspend their library, which automatically removes their items from the drop-down menu.
SEAL does not select a lender automatically. You will need to select a library from the drop-down menu to request from. If you are part of a library system, be sure to check your system for the item before placing a request in SEAL. Look for items in the drop-down menu that list the item as available. Choose to request from libraries whose item has a dash (-), or a status such as available, on shelf, and checked in. If the item says something like: on hold, checked out, lost, on search, or has a date listed, it will not be available.
There are a few ways you can increase the likelihood that you will receive an item from a library.
The first of these is to pay close attention to the type of item you are requesting. For example, many libraries will not be able to loan brand new books. Often there is a period of time where these books are only available to their patrons, ensuring they have the first opportunity to access them. These books will often have "new" within their call number. E-books, special collections materials, reference items, and articles from e-journals are also generally not available to be loaned in SEAL.
It is also important to note the availability of an item in the ILL form drop-down menu and only select materials that are listed as available. It is also a good idea to double-check the status of an item in a library's individual catalog before placing a request. This can give you additional information on the current status of the item.
SEAL has several status options for borrowed and lent items. These updates can be accessed in your borrowing and lending request histories under the column that says action. For borrowers, these options include: canceling requests, receiving items, requesting a renewal, and returning items. On the lender side, you can fill requests, edit the due dates, approve renewals, and check an item in. Other than indicating whether or not you can fill a request, status updates are not mandatory. They are an additional and optional way to track ILL items in SEAL.
You can request a renewal directly in SEAL. First click on My Account on the SEAL homepage. Choose the option SEE ALL REQUESTS PLACED BY YOUR LIBRARY. Your requests will display chronologically. You can scroll to find your specific request or search in the ILL# bar using the number that was assigned to your request. Click the option Request a Renew. Note: this option will only appear once you have updated an item’s status to received.
Clicking Request a Renew will generate an email to the lending library asking them if you can have a renewal. If they agree, an email will be sent to you with the updated due date.
You can also request a renewal by emailing the lending library directly, using their contact information from the SEAL directory. Only renew an item for your patron once you have received confirmation from the lending library.
It is the default for your request histories to display only the past 90 days. It is possible you are not seeing requests, or a particular request, because they fall out of that date range. Along the top of the screen, there is a drop-down menu where you can change the range of displayed dates. The options are 30, 60, 90, and all days. If you would like to see all requests, change the date range to “all days”.
Once lenders receive a borrowing request, they have a certain period of time to answer the request (five business days). If they do not respond to the request, it will automatically expire. If a request expires, you should try placing a new request with a different library.
Empire Library Delivery (ELD) is a statewide delivery service managed by the Empire State Library Network (ESLN). ELD contracts with a courier service, allowing for regular delivery between participating libraries across New York State. SEAL members that are a part of ELD can use the service to send SEAL items to other ELD libraries. You can find all current ELD participants on the up-to-date roster.
The drop-down menu is a catch-all for all the delivery methods a library could be using. It is not reflective of every option that your library might have available to them. For example, Mid-Hudson and RCLS couriers are only options for those individual library systems. More information about delivery in our region is available in the "Delivery" tab.
If you are unsure of the method you should be using, you can also reach out to a library manager at your location or contact kelsey@senylrc.org.
The delivery method you choose for a particular item depends both on your library and the library you are sending materials to.
Mid-Hudson Libraries and RCLS libraries are able to send materials back and forth to one another using their couriers, which meet regularly to exchange items. RCLS and MHLS have routing slips available on their sites, which they can use to ship items to the other system.
Several libraries using SEAL are participants in the Empire Library Delivery program. If you participate, you should check to see if the library you are lending to / borrowing from is a participant, as well. You can find participants in the ELD roster here. MHLS and RCLS are both ELD members, as well as several of the academic libraries participating in SEAL. Public library members should send items to other ELD libraries using their courier with a system routing slip. All other ELD libraries should package and send items according to regular ELD guidelines. However, it is important to note that if you are sending a SEAL item to a public library, you must address it to the system and not the individual library. The system will distribute the items accordingly.
All other deliveries should be made using typical methods such as UPS or USPS. More in-depth descriptions of each delivery method can be found on the libguide Delivery page.
To deliver items to and from school and special libraries, you will need to use delivery vendors such as UPS, FedEx, or USPS. You cannot use a public library courier or Empire Library Delivery to deliver to those libraries. There is no standard or required delivery vendor for SEAL users; instead, you should choose the company that best meets your library’s needs. There are some suggestions for delivering via this method on the Delivery page.
While rare, it can sometimes happen that materials sent through SEAL are lost or damaged. Our Code and Procedures outline some best practices for managing this.
Borrowing libraries in SEAL are responsible for all lost and damaged items. The ILL code states, “the requesting library’s responsibility for this loss is based on the concept that if the request had not been made, the material would not have left the supplier’s shelf, and thus would not have been put at risk” (section 4.9). If an item is lost or damaged, the borrowing library should first contact the lender and alert them to the situation.
Lenders have the option to request repayment for a lost / damaged book. This, however, is not mandatory; the code states that although “the requesting library is required to pay if billed for a lost or damaged item, the supplying library is not necessarily required to charge for a lost item” (4.10). The code goes on to note that borrowing and lending libraries may need to work together to resolve the issue. If a book got lost in delivery, for example, one of the libraries may need to contact the delivery vendor for more information.
Lending libraries can choose their preferred method of repayment (4.10). This can include invoicing for repair costs, or for the market value of an item. Lending libraries can also decide whether they will accept a replacement copy. Lending libraries should send final bills for replacement / damages no later than one year after the item’s initial due date (5.4). Borrowing libraries should pay invoices no later than six months from the initial billing date (4.10). Borrowing libraries can charge their patron for the cost of the lost / missing item as they typically would. However, even if the patron does not pay, the library is still responsible for the cost of the item.
There are a few possibilities for why you didn’t receive an item requested through SEAL. It is possible the lending library updated the status to “filled” but forgot to send the item. It is also possible that it has been delayed in shipping, or was lost during delivery. Contact the lending library if you do not receive the material in a reasonable amount of time. You can find their contact information in the SEAL directory, or in the initial borrowing email. They can provide helpful information—such as when the item was sent and what delivery method was used—which can help you narrow down its location.
In accordance with our regional inter-library loan code and procedures, the borrowing library is responsible for replacing an item that was lost in shipping. While rare, this is a possibility.
If the lending library discovers the item was shipped and received by your library, check to make sure the item was not misplaced at your library. In some cases, SEAL books have accidentally been shelved along with the borrowing library’s own materials.
The borrowing library took responsibility for the item once it was shipped to them. If they do not return an item, first try contacting them using the information from the SEAL directory. If the item is reported lost or not returned in a reasonable amount of time, you have the option to bill the borrowing library for a replacement. Bills should be sent within a year of the item’s initial due date. Your library can also decide whether they will accept a replacement copy of the item in lieu of payment.
Note for Empire Library Delivery users: the policy for lost and missing items was updated in July 2020. If an item sent through ELD using the courier’s tracking system goes missing, you can file a claim on the 10th day following its pick-up from your library / system. If the item is not located after 30 days, you will be reimbursed for it. More information on submitting a claim can be found in the ELD Policies and Procedures Manual .
There are no set lending periods for items sent through SEAL. In SEAL, as with other ILL systems, due dates are up to the discretion of the lending library. However, it is crucial to incorporate extra time into an ILL lending period as the delivery of items can often take up to a week or longer. The patron also needs time to be contacted and pick up the item at their library. A recommended minimum lending period for books is 5 weeks. As per our regional code, due dates are defined as the days items should be checked in at the borrowing library for return to the lender. Lender libraries should take delivery time into consideration before administering late notices. If a patron needs more time with an item, borrowing libraries can request renewals directly within SEAL, or by contacting the lending library.