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Interlibrary Loan

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary Loan is a service offered by the Boreham Library that expands the reach of your research to include books and articles available from other libraries. 

Some tips to keep in mind:

  • We offer this service to you for free 99% of the time; sometimes a library will ask us to pay to borrow from them, and in that instance, we will ask you if you want to pay the fee they are charging.
  • Articles usually take 1-2 business days to arrive; you will receive an email notification when they are available.
  • Books can take up to 1-2 weeks to arrive - sometimes longer due to postal delays - so don't wait to the last minute to request a book!  
  • We absolutely cannot borrow items from special collections or archives.  No rare books and no items from a manuscript collection.  

WorldCat Discovery

WorldCat Discovery is our new WorldCat interface.  For those of you who have used WorldCat before, this will look new to you and will hopefully be an improved search experience.  

A few tips to keep in mind:

  • Use WorldCat to search for books only 
  • WorldCat is not intended for you to use to search for articles
  • You may discover some rare books or manuscript collections in your search results - we cannot borrow them through ILL
  • Please be sure to login in to ILL before you start searching in WorldCat - this way it is already ready for you to request items!

Find a Book & Request It

1.  Login to Interlibrary Loan from the library's homepage

2.  Enter your @ UAFS ID Number and UAFS Password (the one you use for your email)

  • Don't forget the @ symbol before your UAFS ID Number!

3.  Click on Advanced Search toward the top left

ILL Advanced Search

4.  This will take you to the Search bars.  Ignore the section to the side - it's not important.

Advanced Search

5.  Before you begin your search, scroll down the page and select your Search Settings - use the ones I suggested:

  • Expand search with related terms
  • Format - Book
  • Language - English
  • Audience - Not juvenile

WorldCat - Search Settings

6.  I did a keyword search for Arkansas and Reconstruction.  In your search results, you will have some filters you can use.  

  • Sort By: Best Match 
  • Format:  Select Print Book and Thesis, Dissertation

Search Results 1

7.  Next browse through the results.  I am going to select a title we do not own.  I will click on that title.  

  • You can click View Description to learn more information about this title
  • Click Request Item Through Interlibrary Loan if you want to borrow this book

Search Results 2

8.  After you click on Request Item through Interlibrary Loan you will be taken to a request form.  Fill out the information at the bottom of the form.  Be sure to click the Submit button!

Request Form