The Interlibrary Loan service obtains materials from other libraries which are either not owned by the University's libraries or not available. UMass faculty, staff and students holding a valid ID card are eligible to use the ILL service. Materials which are owned by the UMass Libraries but are non-circulating will not be borrowed by the Resource Access Department. Local public libraries can provide similar service. A separate form must be submitted for each book or journal article requested.
Interlibrary loan can take from days to several weeks to be filled.
The material format, availability of the material, the location of the lending library, and time of year are all factors in how quickly an item will be received. If the material you need is in a journal held at a 4 college library, Interlibrary Loan can obtain it for you, or you can visit the library yourself to retrieve the article. Books must be picked up at the library. Notifications for books can be sent to you using the address and method of your choice. These loan periods must be respected.