What is Interlibrary Loan (ILL)?

Interlibrary Loan is a service for Emory faculty, staff and students that allows our library to request materials not held by Emory from lenders all over the world.  Before using this service, you'll need to know a couple of things:  

  • First, you'll need to know exactly what the item is.  You may need help determining this, if so, please contact our Reference staff for assistance (404-727-0059) or
    • law faculty can request assistance here.
    • law students can request assistance here.
    • If you are Emory faculty, staff or student NOT in the Law School, please contact your home library for assistance.
  • Second (and related to the first point), you'll need to be sure that Emory doesn't own the item you need, so you don't wait a day or two only to find out you could have had the item much sooner.  
  • Third, once you're sure you know what you need and that Emory doesn't have it, place your request in ILLiad, the Interlibrary Loan system.
  • Fourth, if you're a law student you will need to fill out an explanatory form with our ILL Specialist before you can request items.  Please contact Crystal Lee to schedule a meeting. 
User Type Can user designate a proxy? Where are these items picked up and returned? How long can they have it? Renewals? Will they be charged for this service? Will they be charged overdues? Will they be charged for lost items? Can items be recalled? Overdues?
Law Faculty Yes, law faculty can submit requests to ILLiad directly or have staff (NOT LAW STUDENT RA'S) submit their requests from the Library's Faculty Request form online Books will be delivered to your faculty mailbox; they can be returned to the Law Library or the dropbox on the 5th floor; electronic copies will be emailed Depends on what the lender allows, up to 3 renewals - renewals must be requested a minimum of 1 day prior to the due date Whenever possible, we borrow from free lenders.  When this is not possible, the Law Library sets a $50 maximum cost. No Yes - lender sets lost item cost after 3 notices Yes,  $1.00/day
Law Students and Journal Users No Books should picked up from, and returned to, the Service Desk in the Law Library. Depends on what the lender allows, up to 1 renewals - renewals must be requested a minimum of 1 day prior to the due date Whenever possible, we borrow from free lenders.  When this is not possible, the Law Library sets a $25 maximum cost.  These costs are passed on to student borrowers or their journals.  Users may select a maximum cost of ZERO if they wish. Yes, $0.50/day  Yes - lender sets lost item cost after 3 notices Yes,  $1.00/day
Law Student Research Assistants No - these proxy privledges are only good for check out and requesting of materials held by the Emory Libraries.  See LAW FACULTY above. NA NA NA NA NA NA
Non-Law Emory Faculty and staff Contact your home library for Interlibrary Loan service NA NA NA NA NA NA
Sponsored visitors, alumni, courtesy users, fee patrons Not eligible for Emory Interlibrary Loan service, contact your public library for assistance NA NA NA NA NA NA
  • Fines are only charged for days the Interlibrary Loan office is open (Monday - Friday).
  • The Library will send one (1) reminder notice, and two (2) overdue notices for ILL'ed materials.  If overdue materials have not been returned once all three (3) notices have been sent, the account will become blocked. 
  • Blocked accounts cannot place new requests or request renewals until these overdue items have been returned to Interlibrary Loan.

Please bear in mind, most libraries will not lend the following types of items:

  • Very recently published books or periodical issues
  • Multi-volume sets
  • Entire volumes of periodicals
  • Reference books
  • Rare books or original manuscripts
  • Videotapes and DVDs
  • Some dissertations and theses
  • Textbooks
  • Commercial supplements & Study aids (please let us know if our collection doesn't include the latest edition, however!)
  • Items available online as page-images (PDF’s)
  • Newspapers available electronically in any form (PDF or HTML)
  • Codes available through Lexis or Westlaw
  • Items held by other Emory libraries (even if checked out)
  • Ephemeral items (PLI's and ALI/ABA materials which are kept for a limited time)
  • Open-ended portions of items (e.g. tables of contents, indexes) unless there is a known discrepancy we can help you resolve
  • Items held by Emory which are checked out, in reshelving, available online, in storage or in staff use

The Law Library does not place requests for the following types of items:

  • Items on Reserve at the Law Library (including study aids)
  • Textbooks
  • Items available online as page-images (.pdf's)
  • Newspapers available in any electronic format (.pdf or html)
  • State codes available in any electronic format (.pdf or .html)
  • Ephemeral items (PLI's and ALI/ABA materials which are kept for a limited time)
  • Items held by other Emory libraries
  • Open-ended portions of items (e.g. tables of contents, indexes) unless there is a known discrepancy we can help you resolve
  • Items held by Emory which are checked out, in reshelving, available online, in storage or in staff use

Be a thoughtful user: Please bear in mind that even when we borrow from a no cost lender, there is still staff time and effort expended on both sides, so ILL borrowing is never really "free".  Please use good judgment to ensure that the resources for providing this service remain available to everyone.  When we lose or return materials late, this can endanger our relationship with other libraries which may opt not to lend to us in the future. 

Handle with care! Interlibrary loan items should be handled with the greatest care possible; these are not our books.  Please respect any restrictions placed by the lending library, such as library use only  or no renewals. Disregarding these restrictions may result in fines and/or the loss of ILL privileges.   Please do not remove the paperwork on the front cover of these books; doing so vastly increases the chances items will get lost.

 

 

MacMillan Law Library lends Interlibrary loan items free of charge via OCLC to American nonprofit libraries. Our items check out to ILL for four weeks from the date the request is processed. We grant renewals whenever possible, but ask that you request renewals before the due date. Books are subject to recall.  We regret we cannot provide rush service or make custom shipping arrangements for OCLC borrowers.

In the unfortunate and (happily) infrequent event that materials are lost or damaged before they are returned, we will invoice the borrowing library for the current replacement cost of the book plus a $25.00 processing fee. We recommend using trackable shipping methods (UPS or FedEx) for your protection.

We regret that we cannot lend:

  • Multi-volume sets (include codes, reporters and whole periodicals)*
  • Looseleaf services*
  • Documents (either US or UN/EU)
  • DVD's
  • Items currently on Reserve
  • Items in our Leisure Collections
  • Microforms*
  • Newspapers or current periodical issues* **
  • Items which are updated with pocket parts*
  • Items which are too old or fragile to survive shipping*
  • Reference materials or computer manuals (most of these are designated "Office Use")

* These items, while non-loanable, can have specific cases, citations, articles, or page runs copied and sent to requesting institutions.  If we need to turn down a request, we may contact you for specific information in order to make such copies.

** We do not keep newspapers (NYT) or general interest periodicals (People) more than a few months. 

Time permitting, we try to troubleshoot citations which seem incorrect; however, in the interest of the speediest possible service, we ask that you check citations before submitting requests.