: For Students, Faculty, and Staff 
by Rachel Hawkins
The University of Minnesota Libraries strive to meet all of your research and scholarship needs.
While the collections in our 13 campus locations contain more than 7 million volumes, even our large library system cannot collect every item.
Can’t get access to the research materials you really need?
Interlibrary Loan delivers the published world.
If the University of Minnesota Libraries do not own an item that you need for your research, consider placing an Interlibrary Loan request.
What is Interlibrary Loan?
Interlibrary Loan, also known as ILL, is a free service that allows current University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff to request books, articles, and other library materials not available in our collections.
Libraries nationwide cooperate to share materials. You don’t even need to know which other library has the material you want – we track that down for you.
Why use Interlibrary Loan?
The Interlibrary Loan service can bridge information gaps, filling over 30,000 request annually. The service will borrow materials for you from libraries across the globe, expanding the scope of your coursework and scholarly research.
What can you borrow?
Interlibrary Loan allows current students, faculty, and staff to borrow:
- articles from journals to which we do not have access,
- books and chapters from books not in our collections,
- audiovisual materials not in our collections,
- and other research materials, including dissertations and theses.
How long does it take to get ILL materials?
Articles can often arrive within a day through our fast, electronic delivery service.
In general, books usually arrive within 3-10 days, and articles typically arrive within 1-5 days; the length of time varies depending on availability, shipping and other factors. It is best to request materials well in advance of your deadline.
How can you place an Interlibrary Loan request?
To place an Interlibrary Loan request, log on to ILLiad using your University ID and password. ILLiad is a resource managing system that allows you to place Interlibrary Loan requests 24 hours a day.
From ILLiad, you can track your requests for books, articles and other materials. You can even view and download electronically received articles.
