Interlibrary Loan and Digital Delivery

Who may use Interlibrary Loan and Digital Delivery

Available to students, staff, and faculty of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, as well as Extension, Research and Outreach Centers, and Itasca or Hormel Institutes with active borrowing privileges.

Friends of the Library and Special Privilege Card holders are not eligible for the university’s interlibrary loan services but may request materials through their local public library.

University of Minnesota Law School affiliates should use the Law Library's Interlibrary Loan & Scan on Demand service.

Cost

Content is delivered with no charge. 

Interlibrary Loan material due dates

The due dates of ILL items are determined by the lending libraries and indicated on the book strip attached to the front of the material. 

Requestable materials and Renewals

• Primarily books, dissertations, government publications, and photocopies of articles. Current periodicals or newspapers, rare books, new books, videos, and recordings may be unavailable.
• Interlibrary Loan will attempt to borrow textbooks.  If a textbook arrives from a Big Ten Library, it may be borrowed for 16 weeks with at least a 4-week renewal. Other libraries may only lend for 4 to 6 weeks.
• All ILL materials are checked out in the main Library Account. Renewal requests can be submitted within My Library Account by clicking on the "Renew" button next to the title. You will receive a notice within 24 hours with the new due date. If the renew request is denied, we will contact you with the due date assigned by the lending library. 

Digital Delivery policies

• The service will scan a small portion, article or chapter from print material, microfilm and fiche held within our collection.
• If an item is not found on the shelf, the request will be filled through Interlibrary Loan, who will obtain the item from another library (typically within 1-3 days).
• Books on reserve for classes are not available for digitization.
• The University of Minnesota Libraries reserves the right to cancel requests in some circumstances, such as a request exceeding 75 pages, or other requests that may put undue strain on resources. We will contact you if we are unable to fulfill your request.

Other document scanning services

• The Libraries also has a Fee-Based Digital Delivery service that will create high-quality digitization of materials from our collections for both University affiliates and non-affiliates. This service will digitize archival materials, photographs, maps, audio, video, and more. All of these requests are managed by Digital Library Services staff in conjunction with the curator of the particular Libraries’ collection.
• University of Minnesota Law School affiliates should use the Law Library’s Scan on Demand service.
• Non-University fee-based document services:
  • Linda Hall Document Delivery
  • Penco Information Retrieval
  • Prior Art Documentation Service
  • University Of Texas Libraries InterLibrary Services for External Libraries and Researchers 
  • Wisconsin TechSearch

Time until requests arrive

• Books: average 3 to 10 days
• Articles and book chapters: average 1 to 3 days

Length of time varies depending on availability, shipping, and other factors. Please request materials with ample time before your deadline.

Request status

Sign into your ILL account under Manage my requests or contact the Interlibrary Loan office to find the status of your request.

Notifications

All notices and messages are sent via email. You will be notified via email when articles are available for download within your ILL account. 

On campus pick up locations

• Wilson Library
• Walter Science and Engineering Library
• Health Sciences Library
• Magrath Library
• Mathematics Library
• Architecture Library
• Natural Resources Library
• University of Minnesota Duluth Library
• University of Minnesota Rochester Library
• Music Library

Campus office delivery

Campus office delivery is available for faculty and staff only.

For Extension, Research and Outreach Centers, Itasca*, and Hormel Institute:

• Items will be sent with pre-paid UPS return label and shipped at no charge.
• We will contact patrons to confirm the shipping address for any off-TC campus addresses.

Off campus delivery

Off campus delivery is available upon request to addresses within the domestic United States. 

Materials sent to University of Minnesota Extension, Research and Outreach Centers, Itasca*, and Hormel Institute will be sent with pre-paid UPS return label.

*Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories researches please enter a note for each request indicating that they are currently located at the Itasca Biological Station.

Damaged or lost materials

For damaged or lost materials,  please notify the Interlibrary Loan office immediately.

Return long overdue materials to avoid replacement fees. 

Things to consider: 

• Lending libraries might accept a new, same edition copy.
• When an item is 30 days overdue, the system will automatically add a $100 replacement fee to your library account. Contact the ILL office directly with questions related to ILL fines: wilsill@umn.edu.