What is Interlibrary Loan?
What it is: the Interlibrary Loan system (ILL) is based on a general agreement among participating libraries to make certain materials books, dissertations, journal articles available to other member libraries upon request. This agreement allows library patrons access to far more materials than any one library could possibly hold. We routinely search the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) database to locate and borrow materials owned by other US, Canadian and European libraries. What it isn’t: the Interlibrary Loan system is not an on-demand, overnight document delivery service. If you need this service, try Ingenta, Infotrieve and / or Document Delivery Suppliers, a list of commercial document delivery suppliers. We try to borrow almost any item that is requested. Be aware that we frequently have trouble borrowing: recently published books rare or fragile books multi-volume sets reference books theses and dissertations conferences and proceedings unpublished papers and reports boun