Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary loan should be encouraged when materials cannot be located in the library catalog or in our full-text online databases. ILL for items that are checked out will be determined by the due date of the item; ILLiad forms for these items should be completed nevertheless, so that ILL staff can determine the best course of action. Forms are online at http://library.samford.edu/service/ill_rrs.html. When items are checked out, remind patrons that they can place a hold on these materials. There are sometimes restrictions on certain classes of material (see below) that reduce the chances of getting those items through ILL. Staff should always make the patron aware of such restrictions when they are known.

Materials not available in our collection may be borrowed from other libraries via the Interlibrary Loan service. Generally, reference books, video recordings, sound recordings and genealogical materials are not available for loan. The library must observe the lending policies of the lending library. Interlibrary Loan is available only to faculty, staff and students of Samford University.

Please note: Dissertations are not widely available and when they are, usually incur fees for the patron who requests the dissertation. We will tell patrons who inquire about dissertations that there may be a fee. Patrons can purchase dissertations for themselves if they wish to do so. Please see the Dissertations Policy at section 2.23, for further information.

Persons who want to request materials through Interlibrary Loan should fill out forms in ILLiad (link above), our automated Interlibrary Loan program. ILLiad uses the patron's Samford email ID and password. Information on these forms should be as complete as possible. There is no need, however, to determine location of the materials requested. Location will be determined by ILL staff as they process the request.

Resource Retrieval

The Resource Retrieval Service is available only to faculty, staff, and some doctoral students of Samford University. Books and articles from journals, either obtained via ILL or located in our library, can be delivered to the departmental office of faculty/staff via the Resource Retrieval Service.

When a faculty or staff member uses ILLiad to request items, ILL staff assume that resource retrieval is desired, and deliver items accordingly.For more information, patrons may email the ILL office or call 726-2983.

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