Interlibrary Loan is an international agreement and service between all types of libraries, whereby a library can borrow an item or get a photocopy from a journal that it doesn't own. This is a library-to-library service. You tell us what you need and we make the request to owning libraries. They, in turn, trust us to return the item to them on time and in good condition. Items requested are to support Georgia Southern research and teaching.
This term means different things at different university libraries. At Georgia Southern’s Henderson Library, it refers to supplying articles from our print journals and checking out and mailing books from our collection to the user. Users who are eligible for this service are Faculty and Distance Learners.
All faculty, faculty emeriti, staff, and currently enrolled Georgia Southern students and graduate students are eligible for ILLiad services, as well as East Georgia College at Georgia Southern students. Abuse of ILL or failure to comply with policies and procedures may result in a loss of ILL privileges. Also, all users are not necessarily eligible for all services.
The Georgia Southern ILL services will borrow a variety of materials from other libraries around the world, including but not limited to: books, dvds, microfilm, and special collections. Items that can be digitized will be available for you to download from your ILLiad account. Physical items will be held at the circulation desk.
The ILL department will process any request submitted it receives, even for materials within the University System of Georgia (USG). However, GIL Express may be a faster option if you know your request is available from another USG library.
Items on the hold shelf do time out. For items owned by the University Libraries, this is usually 10 days. Items borrowed from other institutions will be pulled within 3 days of their due date. Please contact us if you need an extension to pick up an item.
Some people might find it troublesome to have to log into ILLiad using a username and password. We believe this is less trouble than traditional paper and electronic systems which require you to enter your personal information with each new request.
Your username and password allows us to give you secure access to information about your interlibrary loan requests. Your username is your Eagle ID. Your password can be anything you like. No one but you will know your password, not even the library staff. The password you set is stored in an encrypted file. You may change your password and edit your contact information as needed.
If you are faculty or administrative staff with student assistants or staff making your ILLiad requests, please make a Shared Account which is eligible for the same services as faculty accounts including Document Delivery. For the login, enter "912345" plus the last three digits of the faculty member’s Eagle ID -ex. 912345777. Please register with faculty member’s name and address -the e-mail contact can be the student if you wish.The faculty member will be responsible for all borrowed items. Anyone on this shared account will also likely have a personal ILLiad account.
**A Shared Account can also be made for a specific research project.**
In the event that you forget your password, click on “forgot password?” at the bottom of the sign-on page and follow the directions. In a few minutes, the system will send you an e-mail with a link that will allow you to create a new password and access your account. If for any reason this doesn’t work or you don’t receive an e-mail, call or email your campus ILL office and we can set a temporary password for you to use to get into your account.
Most libraries ship photocopies of articles to us in electronic format. In the past we printed these articles and mailed them to students and faculty. Now through ILLiad, the articles are accessible via your ILLiad account in PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed and configured to work with your Web browser in order to view, download, and print these articles.
**The articles come straight to your account from the supplying library ILL staff don’t see them to check for errors, etc. Alert us immediately if there is any problem with any electronically received article.**
Items that can be borrowed include books, DVDs, CDs, microfilm newspapers, dissertations and music scores. Some items will be deemed "library use only" or "no renewals" by the owning library. Some items may be lent to us for only a few days such as DVDs or bound journals.
Enter a separate request for each item that you wish to borrow or article you want photocopied. (Only 1 article per ILLiad request. Multiple volumes of a title to be borrowed can be entered as 1 request.) Each request will be a unique transaction sent out electronically to owning libraries by our ILL department. The key word here is “request” we don’t always find a library willing to loan the dissertation, video, or book that you want.
Use the appropriate template for what you are requesting there is one for photocopies of articles or chapters and another for loans to use for books, videos, music scores, and microfilm newspapers. There are also templates for dissertations and conference proceedings. In each template, the required fields are marked with a red *. It is the user’s responsibility to include a complete citation so the correct material can be obtained.
“How long does it take?” is not easy to answer. Your photocopy might get here the next day or could take 2 weeks. Borrowed material could get here in 4 days, or may take as long as a month.
If it seems like your request is taking too long, the first thing you should do is check the status of your request via your ILLiad account. You can see if the item has been shipped from owning library and any notes staff have made on the request. You can call ILL staff so we can investigate because sometimes there are glitches that need our intervention.
The owning library determines the due date. Usually you are allowed 3-4 weeks, but for microfilm or a video, the loan period may be 1 week or less. Distance learners may often have an item for only 1-2 weeks because of the time it takes to mail the book to their house and get it back. You may request a renewal via your ILLiad account before the item is due. Contact the ILL office if assistance is needed. It is usually a couple days before you find out if the owning library granted your renewal request.
All borrowed items should be returned to your campus library’s checkout desk. Or may be mailed back upon request.(Please contact your ILL department for further details.) We are responsible for the material’s safe return to the owning library. Please return your borrowed items on time. Keeping material past its due date can jeopardize our ability to borrow materials from that library in the future.
At this time, there is no relation between your ILLiad account and your Library account.
The Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery office is staffed 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Monday through Friday.