Boing Boing

Boing Boing

Your public library can get you almost any book on earth for $5 or less

Mark Frauenfelder
Mar 23, 2026
∙ Paid

Mariusz Lopusiewicz/shutterstock.com

You need a $198 academic text or research? Or am out-of-print monograph that doesn’t show up on any used-book site? Brian Schrader, a San Diego blogger, ran into both problems constantly until he discovered a system called Inter-Library Loan.

ILL lets your local library request a physical book from basically any other …

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