By Matt Thacker
In all, the six libraries at U of L hold 1.8 million volumes of material, but if you still can’t find that one last resource for your research paper, the university can retrieve nearly any book or article in the country for you for free.
The Interlibrary Loan [ILLiad] program connects students to a world of literature, journals and media sources through its membership in the Online Computer Library Center. The Center has thousands of members from all around the world who agree to exchange materials with other libraries.
“The purpose of ILLiad is to further research needs and academic studies at U of L,” said John Spivey, coordinator for ILLiad at the Ekstrom Library. Spivey said mostly graduate students and professors use the service, but he hopes more undergraduate students will take advantage of the program.
Last year, U of L filled over 12,000 of the nearly 16,000 requests. Spivey said many of the requests were not filled because the requested books were already at U of L. The ILLiad staff claims they can find “just about anything” and will look just about anywhere to do so. U of L has borrowed from libraries as far as Denmark and lent books to people in the Ukraine.
“In my research, I use ILLiad to obtain journal articles and books from journals and presses that University Libraries do not collect,” said English professor Alex Blazer. “Since ILLiad is tied to many article databases, requesting a journal article is a snap.”
Once a student submits a request on the university library’s Web site, U of L sends out a request to libraries that hold the wanted material.
The libraries have three days to respond or the order gets cancelled and sent to different libraries. No library has to agree to send any material, but most likely at least one will.
An average book request will take three to five days to be filled, but for rare books the wait can extend up to two weeks or more. Journal articles can also be sent electronically, speeding up the process. Some articles will arrive at your computer in less than 24 hours.
“Getting articles is really fast and easy,” Spivey said. “They can be delivered to you at home which really helps our many commuter students.”
The new service has also helped students in science and technology fields.
“[The electronic delivery] has greatly improved turnaround time for completing research activities,” said Kathy Rogers, Interlibrary Loan Manager at the Kornhauser Health Sciences Library. “Turnaround time is especially crucial to our users working in the health sciences fields in research and clinical settings.”
Advances in technology have also allowed students to monitor their requests online. Rogers said she has gotten positive feedback from students about the new system.
“The greatest improvement that ILLiad has given to our users is the ability to track their Interlibrary Loan requests online,” Rogers said.
U of L also lends out many of its resources to other libraries, but the more than 100,000 books in the rare books collection have certain guidelines. Shipped books must be insured and can only be delivered to one of 130 libraries which have proper training and equipment to care for the books.
U of L will pay up to $20 to obtain any material. Students can also purchase a rush delivery. More information on the ILLiad program can be found at http://library.louisville.edu/ill.
ILLiad, along with other libraries around the world, hopes to make research on any topic possible for all students. Next time you browse the book stacks at the library, realize those books may have already traveled the world.
