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Interlibrary Loan: How to Use Interlibrary Loan

Learn about what Interlibrary Loan is and how to use it

Placing a request for a physical item

The easiest way to submit a request for a physical item like a book or DVD is to find the book in WorldCat and click the red "Get It" button that appears on the right side of the record. This will auto-populate the ILLiad request form (shown below) with all the necessary information, and all that's left for you to do is add a needed-by date (if you have one) and any additional notes about your request.

A screenshot of the library catalog that shows the only access option for an item is to "Request from Libraries Worldwide", with the Get It button underneath

 

You can also submit a request directly in ILLiad without going through the catalog.

From the ILLiad home page, click New Request, then Book/Media. The form will look something like this:

A screenshot of the form to request a book or media item through ILL. It has two required text boxes to enter the title and author of the item. Following that, there are optional boxes to enter the publisher, place of publication, date of publication, edition, and ISBN (international standard book number). Providing the ISBN will speed up request processing. There are two drop down menus to choose how you want Bertrand Library to get the item and if the item is essential to your studies.

From here, you can fill in all the information you know about the item. Only the title and author are required; however, adding more information speeds up the process and ensures that you get the right edition that you're looking for. If you have a specific date you need the item by, you can enter that in the "When do you need this by?" box farther down the form. There is also a notes field where you can add any additional information about your request, such as "I am looking for the Japanese translation of this" or "Bucknell has this as an eBook, but I would prefer a print version".

If you are requesting a different format of an item Bucknell already owns, be sure to write that in the notes section. We're happy to get alternate formats for you, as long as we know that's what you want!

Placing a request for an electronic copy

If you're looking for a specific article or book chapter and know the title of the journal or book it appears in, you can submit a request directly in ILLiad. From the ILLiad home page, click on "New Requests", then choose the option that best fits what you're looking for (article, book chapter, conference paper, patent, report, thesis, or standards document). The form will look something like this:

A screenshot of the form to request an article. It has two required text boxes, one for the journal or conference title, and one for the article title. At the top of the form are options to input the DOI or PMID to auto-fill the form. There are other optional text boxes to add the article author, volume number, issue number, and date of publication.

 

A screenshot of the form to request a book chapter. It has two required text boxes, one for the book title and one for the chapter title. There are additional text boxes to add the book author or editors, the chapter author, the place of publication, the publisher, the year, the edition, which pages you want, and the ISBN (internal standard book number).

 

While we only need the title of the main work and the title of the article you want, adding as much detail as you can will speed up the process and make it easier to locate your item. If you have the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or PMID (PubMed ID) for an article, adding this to the appropriate box at the top of the request form will auto-populate the form with all the necessary information, and all you have to do is add any special notes you may have.