Textbooks in general may not be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan. They are in use or on reserve at lending libraries and therfore very hard to obtain. They only circulate for short time periods and are subject to recall. Users can NOT rely on these loans for their required reading. Questions regarding textbook reserve materials can be answered at the Circulation Desk.

Dissertations, theses, and material on microform are available only at the discretion of the lending library. Requests for these materials may be denied. Rare books, reference books, archival materials, and audiovisual materials are usually not lent out. The ILL Department will attempt to obtain materials located outside the United States for our patrons.

Please Note: Circulating materials and articles from periodicals owned by the Bell Library may not be requested through ILL with the exception of checked out, lost or missing items and requests for articles that contain graphics or tables which are not available from our electronic resources. Materials only available in non-circulating collections (i.e., Special Collections & Archives) can be requested from another library. If you need help deciding if an item is not available from Bell Library, please ask for assistance from the Reference Desk.

Copyright and ILL
The Copyright Act requires that during one calendar year only 5 articles from any one journal and only one article from a single journal issue be provided to a requesting library without payment of copyright royalty fees. Requests for articles that would require payment of copyright fees by the library are considered on a case by case basis. If you cannot request any additional articles because of copyright limitations, please contact the Access Services Supervisor, Daniel Cayce, 825-5906, so other options can be explored.

Arrival of materials
Articles usually arrive in 2 to 3 working days and books may take 5 working days or longer. Articles from libraries within the Coastal Bend Health Information Network, a network of hospital libraries, can be obtained within 24 hours. It is important that requests be submitted well in advance of the date they are needed. Patrons can check the status of their request by logging into ILLiad and clicking the button for "View/Modify Outstanding Requests", then click the "View/Edit" button on the left side of the request. This will provide detailed information on the status of the request.

Patrons must pick up electronically delivered items from the library's server within 30 days after the notification is sent. Otherwise, the request will need to be re-submitted.

Patron Notification
When materials arrive, patrons are notified by email or telephone depending on their preference as set up in their ILLiad account. If electronic delivery is preferred and possible, an email notification will automatically be sent when the material is ready to be accessed from the Interlibrary Loan Department's web server.

Patron Responsibility
Copies of articles and other types of materials are retained by the patron. Books must be returned by the date set by the lending library. Materials should be returned directly to the Circulation Desk. DO NOT PLACE ILL MATERIALS IN THE OUTSIDE BOOK DROP, or the book drop at the circulation desk. Please return materials with the identifying ILL label. Renewals are granted at the discretion of the lending library. If a renewal is necessary, it must be requested at least three days prior to the due date. All loaned items are subject to immediate recall by the Lending library. Patrons are financially responsible for books that are not returned, lost, or damaged.

Loan period for borrowed materials
Materials borrowed from other libraries through ILL are usually lent for a period of 4 weeks but may be less depending on the policies of the lending library. The patron is responsible for the timely return of the materials or borrowing privileges may be blocked.

Late return of materials
The lending of another library's materials to A&M-CC patrons is a courtesy extended to the Bell Library. Abuse of the service by returning materials late may result in the suspension of checkout and/or ILL privileges.

Webpage revised on 08/09/2007