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Interlibrary Loan

When items are not available in UW collections, UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students may use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to request items from other institutions.  ILL is to be used for university-related coursework and scholarly research. To see if you qualify for ILL services, please consult Borrowing Policies.

Submit ILL requests through the Catalog, Article Search, or a subject Database. Requests for materials available in UW collections may be cancelled by ILL.

Check your Library Account and Interlibrary Loan Account for status updates and article downloads.

ESTIMATED DELIVERY TIMES – IF THE ITEM IS: TYPICAL DELIVERY:
Article or book chapter – Request a Copy through Article Search for immediate online availability or faster ILL service 1-2 days
Physical item (book, DVD) – Request a Copy through Catalog for delivery estimates and faster service 2-10 days

Difficult items to borrow through ILL

  • Digital requests for more than 1 chapter of a book – request a physical item loan instead
  • Engineering standards – use Request a Standard service
  • E-books
  • Textbooks, popular fiction, new books
  • Reference materials
  • Genealogical resources
  • Computer software and manuals
  • Rare books
  • Conference proceedings

Borrowing libraries wishing to request items from UW-Madison, see ILL Lending. For those not affiliated with UW-Madison or another institution, other options are available.