Don’t know how much you spend on interlibrary loan shipping? Now there’s a simple way to find out. Use this free and easy spreadsheet to estimate your ILL shipping expenses via United State Postal Service. All you need is your borrowing and lending volume; the number of items you ship via USPS. Plug in those numbers and the spreadsheet does all the math comparing Library/Media and 1st Class/Parcel Post rates.

While not as accurate as having an itemized accounting of everything you ship, this calculator will provide a good, conservative estimate based on average material weights (1 pound for books and 2 ounces for articles) and standard shipping materials.

Once we have estimated costs for a Tenn-Share statewide courier, you can compare your estimated USPS rates vs. using the courier.