Interlibrary Loan Saves the Day!

Getting Material From Other Libraries

The week before Spring Break a student came to the reference desk looking for a book that she discovered while reading material for her research paper.  She asked if the BSC Library had the book listed on the bibliography at the end of the article.

We checked the BSC Catalog and found that we didn’t own it.  The student was pretty disappointed.  The story could have ended there.  The student could have just said “Oh, well, I’ll find something else” but instead, there was a happy ending. 

Because she came to the reference desk the librarian was able to tell her that she could request the book through Interlibrary Loan.  When the student returned from Spring Break, she checked her email and discovered that the book was waiting for her at the Circulation Desk.

Interlibrary Loan is a service that allows the Library to borrow material from other libraries for our students and faculty.  There is no charge and materials usually arrive in about a week. 

There are several ways to request materials through Interlibrary Loan, the easiest of which are:  

• Fill out the Interlibrary Loan form on the Library web page found in “Request Forms”; or,
• Fill out the request forms while searching in Discovery or other databases. Here's an example:

Be sure to talk to the Library staff if you have any questions about Interlibrary Loan.  We are always happy to help.