Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service provided by the Information Delivery Services Department that attempts to borrow materials from other libraries for you that are not available in the NIU University Libraries. Please see the FAQs below for more information.
| To order books, video recordings, sound recordings, dissertations, and more: | To order journal articles and photocopies: |
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Notice: As of the fall semester, all ILL notifications will be sent to official NIU email accounts only.
In addition to the links provided above for ordering books and other materials, and journal articles and other photocopies, you may also use hardcopy request forms located at service desks throughout the library. Submit the completed form to the Information Delivery Services office (Room 127).
ILL services are provided free to all eligible NIU patrons. However, patrons may accrue fees and fines for late, damaged, or lost materials from other institutions. See the Information Delivery Services Policy for details.
Books, video and sound recordings, and other loan materials take an average of 14-21 days to arrive. Articles and other photocopies may arrive between 3-21 days. The time it takes to borrow materials is dependent upon the rarity of the material, how many other libraries own the material, and the lending policies of those libraries.
Information Delivery Services always attempts to obtain articles in as timely a manner possible. The best way for you to help ensure this is to plan ahead and pay attention to the “Not needed after” date on the ordering forms. Information Delivery Services does not offer a Rush service for articles.
Due dates for books and other loan items are determined by the lending library. Generally, however, loans are for four weeks, although books borrowed through I-Share might be loaned for a longer length of time.
If you obtained your materials through I-Share, you may renew them by going to the “My Account” screen in the I-Share catalog. The library has a tutorial available to help you use “My Account.”
For all other renewals, contact the Information Delivery Services department directly at (815)753-0158 or (815)753-9245. Please note that renewals are granted at the discretion of the lending library and are not in the control of the IDS department.
Books, photocopies of articles and book chapters, and some microforms are generally available through interlibrary loan. Other materials are generally NOT available, such as rare, archival, or fragile books, reference books, whole issues or volumes of periodicals, software, CD-ROMs, and genealogies. Items already available in the University Libraries are NOT available through Interlibrary Loan.
The Information Delivery Services office will notify you when your books have arrived by either email or postcard. If an article that you have requested is supplied to us electronically by the lending library, we will supply it electronically to you. Otherwise, the hard copy of the article will be mailed to you. Materials requested through I-Share can be monitored by going to the “My Account” screen in the I-Share catalog. If you have questions regarding book requests, contact Ron Barshinger at (815) 753-0158. For questions regarding article requests, contact Cherie Hauptman at (815) 753-0602.
Unless you are notified otherwise, all ILL materials may be picked up from and returned to the Circulation Desk. Students at branch campuses may pick up and return their ILL materials to the service desk at their branch library.