Remember that Interlibrary Loan is a process by which U. Albany Interlibrary Loan receives your requests from ILLiad or from Firstsearch databases such as Worldcat and then obtains materials for you. Here are some tips which will save you time and facilitate the delivery of your item:
- Before placing the request, check to make sure that the item isn’t available here in our collections. You can search our online catalog, Minerva.
- Remember that you must be registered with ILLiad, our electronic interlibrary loan system. In the ILLiad customer profile, please keep information about yourself, your contact information, and your delivery preferences up-to date.
- You may want to begin searching for your research material in the Worldcat database. With your search result you can then link directly to our local ILLiad Interlibrary Loan software to place your order. Connect to WorldCat.
- Please provide complete and accurate information about your request. While it is not absolutely necessary, it may be very helpful to interlibrary loan staff, if you provide complete information.
- Requesting books – Provide the full name of at least the first author or editor. Provide the title and if possible, the publisher, place, and date. If you need a special edition of volume of a set, indicate that in the “notes” field of the request. If you have the ISBN of the book, it is helpful to include it.
- Requesting articles – Do not abbreviate the title of the periodical. Make sure that you searched our local holdings for the periodical title, not the article title. If the periodical has a short and common name, include where it was published. If possible, provide the ISSN of the periodical.
- When requesting a dissertation, provide the author, title, academic institution, and date.
- If possible, provide the source of your citation, such as the name of the database or the URL where you found the information.
- Plan ahead. The peak times of year for ILL work are October-early December and March-April, so the sooner you get your requests in, the more likely it is that we can fill them on time.
