See the Interlibrary Loan pages for policies & help with the system that we use for Interlibrary Loan
The ILL Process
Before we order
We check to make sure that we do not own it.
If we do and it is checked out we will order it for you.
If it is available we will notify you or, if you take classes off campus we will mail it to you.
We check to make sure that the article is not available online.
How we order
We order first from libraries that can provide items quickly.
In some cases we order articles from document delivery services.
We check on the status of your request every 3 days or so and follow up on problems with the lending library.
You can monitor the status of your request through Tipasa.
How we deliver
When we receive the items we notify you immediately via email.
For articles we use electronic delivery via Tipasa to provide 24-7 access to your requests.
Note: the notification email includes a link with a password specific to that article. Use Tipasa to view all available articles.
If you take classes off campus we will send you the materials (you are responsible for returning materials with due dates),
Before we cancel a request
If it cannot be found as cited:
We verify your citation to check for mistakes or incompleteness.
We search not only by title but ISSN (articles) or ISBN (books).
If we found a matching record on the system but no libraries are able/willing to loan to us:
We try other searches (variations on title, ISSN/ISBN, other editions, etc.) to find a record with different libraries to choose from.
For articles we check to see if the article is available free online on the Web.
If our original order comes back unfilled and there are more libraries to choose from we will contact you to see if you want us to try again.
Why We Can't Fill Every Request
Dissertations
Usually only 1-2 libraries own a dissertation, and many choose not to loan them to other libraries (our success rate is around 25%).
New Books
Many times information about a new book is made available before the book is released (pre-publication information from Books in Print or Amazon.com).
In those cases the book is not available from our partner libraries,
When a book is finally released for distribution it takes a while for libraries to purchase, process, and catalog them.
In addition, many libraries to not lend recently purchased books (ourselves included).
Old, Reference and Novelty Books
Very old books are often in poor condition or are rare and irreplaceable and are kept in non-circulating Archives collections (ourselves included).
Few libraries lend Reference books.
Some novelty/specialty books may have a limited publication (e.g., genealogy family histories) or may be considered a high-risk for theft or damage and are not lent.
Articles
Electronic journals are exempted from the copyright provisions of Fair Use for interlibrary loans. We can only borrow articles that are in print or microform formats.
New, foreign, and esoteric journals may be represented only a few libraries. Unfortunately, availability of the citation and abstract does not always relate to the availability of the article.
Expense. In cases where costs are prohibitive we will contact you (e.g., copyright fees, borrowing fees, etc.).
FAQ
Getting into Tipasa is no problem, but I cannot read the document.
NOTE: step one is loading the download file onto your PC.
Note *where* the download is going to!
I am unable to Print articles from Tipasa and Adobe Acrobat is installed.
If Acrobat opens in your browser instead of a separate window make sure you use the Acrobat print icon instead of your browser print commands.
Forgetting to do this will result in printing one blank page only.
These ILL articles come in huge files, sometimes 1 mb and more. Not only does it take a long time for some of them to load (depending on your connection), but then printing them requires reloading again. Depending on your Printer's memory, this could take a long time as well.
Bottom line: if the document is loading, be *very* patient.
Best bet: find the fastest Internet connection and printer combination to print the articles.
I was not notified that an article or book had arrived
If you were not notified, either your Tipasa contact information in is incorrect, or a telephone message could not be delivered.
NOTE: You may update your contact information in Tipasa.
It still remains your responsibility to check on the status of your request (permit at least a week to pass first!). Contact the Circulation Desk (989.964.4240). Tipasa will tell you when the lending library has the article or book in transit.