Interlibrary Loan: Using Interlibrary Loan

If you need further assistance, please contact the interlibrary loan office.

Clyde Robinson
Library 135
(219) 980-6932
E-mail

IU Northwest offers full interlibrary loan (ILL) privileges to all students, staff, and faculty of IU Northwest. We also offer ILL privileges, on a limited basis, to IU alumni and community members.

ILL service is governed by the Interlibrary Loan Code of the American Library Association, the policies of the lending libraries, and federal copyright law (U.S. Code Title 17).

For use of our interlibrary loan services for requesting books, journal articles and other materials, please use our ILLiad online service.

When IUN does not own a particular book or journal article, we may be able to borrow the material from another IU library, another library in the state, in the country, or somewhere in the world. This service is carried out by the library's System Services department.

• Current students, staff, and faculty of IUN.
• Students from other IU campuses.
• Any IU alumni or community member, with the following limitations:
• The item must be available within the state of Indiana
• Material(s) that we have to go outside the state of Indiana will be available for a fee.
• You may be limited to only three requests.

You can get almost anything you need or want through ILL. Examples include: books, videos, journal articles, newspaper articles, dissertations, and more.

There is no set answer for this. As a general rule of thumb: you cannot borrow books held in Rare Books Collections or Archives. Most libraries will not lend current best-sellers or new textbooks. You usually can’t borrow an entire issue or volume of a journal. Reference books do not circulate. While we will try and get you whatever you need, ultimately we can only borrow what some other library is willing to loan.

• On average, it takes 5-10 days for books and articles to come to IUN. The material is delivered by UPS or Info Express.
• It may take longer if the material comes from another state or from outside the IU system.
• System Services will contact you by telephone or by mail when your material arrives.

An ILL request may be cancelled or delayed when:

• No library is willing to supply the material.
• No library owns the material.
• The material is in especially high demand, such as current best-sellers or new textbooks.
• The request has to go to many libraries before one agrees to supply the item.
• The material is especially rare -a historic document or a dissertation.
• The material is published and primarily held in foreign countries.
• Your request contained incorrect information. Without accurate author, title, date, and publisher information it is frequently impossible to fill a request.
• You requested material already available at IUN. If we verify that such material is actually on our shelves, your request will be cancelled.

On weekdays, you can call the System Services office at 980-6933 or 980-6932. You can also stop by the office - located in Room 147.

In the evenings and on weekends, you can call the Reference Desk at 980-6582 to check if your journal (photocopy) request(s) are available. For book requests, you should contact the Circulation Desk at 980-6585.

The loan period for ILL varies; loans are set by the policies of the lending libraries.

The due date is indicated on the circulation slip in the book. While renewals are possible, they are at the discretion of the lending library. You should come to the System Services office (Room 147) or call the office at 980-6933 or 980-6932 to request renewals.

Because our ability to borrow depends on the goodwill of other libraries, the due dates must be honored. Repeated disregard for due dates can result in the suspension of your borrowing privileges.

The IUN Library is bound by any restriction on use imposed by the lending library. Some libraries require that the materials they lend be used in the borrowing library only. Some do not allow photocopying. Some require the signature of readers of unpublished dissertations. The borrower should not let others use the books he/she secures on loan unless special arrangements have been made.

1. Before requesting a book, check IUCAT to make sure that IUN does not own the item.
2. Fill out an ILL Book Request on ILLiad. Make sure you include complete and accurate information such as author, title, publisher, and date.
3. Then hit submit button once the request is filled out.
4. You will be notified by telephone or mail when each item arrives.

1. Before requesting a photocopy, check IUCAT to make sure that IUN does not own the journal and date that you want.
2. Fill out an ILL Photocopy Request on ILLiad. Make sure you include complete and accurate information. Complete information means:
• Journal/magazine name
• Volume and issue number
• Date of article
• Page number(s)
• Complete title of the article
• Author's name
• The source of your information. This speeds up the verification process.
3. Read the Copyright Notice.
4. You will be notified by telephone or mail when each item arrives.

You can pick up photocopies at the Reference Desk. Books are held at the Circulation Desk.

While we do everything we can to get materials as soon as possible, there isn't much we can do to go below the 5-10 day period. If you need something faster than that, there are a couple of things you can do if you need material that we don't own. You can locate the material at other libraries in the region by using WorldCat. If a library in the region owns what you need, you can go directly to them for the material. You may be able to borrow the material from them or use it on their premises.