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Interlibrary Loan: Home

ILL FAQs and how-to

Welcome to Interlibrary Loan @ ESF!

Welcome!  Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a supplementary service provided in cooperation with libraries around the world to help the ESF campus community obtain materials needed for research and study that are not available at Moon Library.  ILL service is available to current faculty, staff, and students of the College of Environmental Science and Foresty.

Books and theses are borrowed from lending libraries and individual journal articles are scanned and sent electronically from lending libraries. While most materials can be obtained, few libraries will lend whole periodicals, reference books, textbooks, media materials, rare books, or current publications (i.e. published in the last year).  The speed with which requests get filled varies greatly, depending on the type and rarity of material requested, where it is located geographically, and the form in which it is supplied.

Please use the tabs above to navigate this guide. Please see the attached PDF for complete interlibrary loan polices.

How Does ILL Work?

Articles:

  • Email notifications will be sent letting you know your article is availble for viewing - follow the link provided in the email.
  • Articles may be viewed by logging in to your ILLiad account and clicking 'View' next to article shown in the 'Electronically Received Articles' box.

Books and Media:

  • Email notifications will be sent out letting you know that you can come to the circulation desk at Moon Library to pick up your book.
  • Some items will be marked as 'Library Use Only.'  This means that the lending library has stipulated that those items not be taken outside the library due to their fragile or rare nature.
  • Renewals must be requested before the book is due.  To renew a book, log in to your ILLiad account, click on 'Checked Out Items' on the left-hand side, click on the transaction number of the book you want to renew, and then click 'Renew Request' at the top of the page.  You will receive an email stating whether or not the book is renewed with the new due date. Often books are only allowed one renewal by the lending library.
  • Books will come with attached paperwork noting when the book is due back and any additional information - please leave this paperwork on the book!
  • Courtesy emails will be sent reminding you to either renew or return your book.

Where In the World Did My ILL Request Come From?

This map shows cities around the world that loaned books and articles to the ESF community through interlibrary loan networks during the 2015-2016 academic year. Click on the map to zoom in.

Search WorldCat

WorldCat is a global catalog of library collections and a great place to find materials not owned by ESF or SU.

ILL News

Interlibrary Loan Service May be Disrupted During Holiday Break

While the library remains open throughout break, Interlibrary Loan will operate a bit slower than usual due to staff vacations and other libraries being closed. Please allow for extra time in receiving your requests as it may take us a little longer to process them and get them from other libraries. Please email moon@esf.edu with any interlibrary loan questions. Thank you and have a great break!

 

Main Entrance to Library Now Open

The main entrance to Moon Library is now open and the south side entrance is now an emergency exit only. Please enjoy the new entry look and come visit the new cafe when it opens soon!

 

Changes to ILLiad login and improvements to interlibrary loan

 

No changes to Illiad login will occur during the semester. Staff at Moon Library are working on improvements to our Interlibrary Loan service. One of these being a move to single authentication much like you see when using Primo (library discovery) and other campus and SUNY services. This should make using interlibrary loan easier for everyone as users will not have to create and remember another log in as has been the practice for many years, and it will facilitate integrating interlibrary loan into our library management system.

In order to implement this improvement, we are working to clean up our interlibrary loan database to generally only include transactions from the last five years and to remove any users with no transactions or activity within the last five years. This new authentication may not have a particular visible effect on most users, however those users who have created unique ILL usernames will have to switch to their ESF ID information once this is completed. We will do our best to minimize impact on users, and hope that this will in fact improve your experience with interlibrary loan. We will provide more information as the project progresses and as always please reach out with questions.

  • The request history of active faculty accounts will not be deleted.
  • We will attempt to merge your existing ILLiad account to your ESF ID account.
  • This will facilitate integrating interlibrary loan function into our discovery and library management systems, eventually meaning one less separate system for you to interact with.
  • We do not yet have a precise timeline for this project as it is complex and relies in part on external vendors. We will update the community as we have information.

What Do You Think?

If you've used Interlibrary Loan at ESF, how satisfied are you with the service?
Ecstatic!: 29 votes (58%)
Happy: 14 votes (28%)
Neutral: 4 votes (8%)
Unhappy: 0 votes (0%)
Very Disappointed: 3 votes (6%)
Total Votes: 50