Interlibrary Loan

Libraries around the world share books and articles with each other via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Interlibrary Loan is a free service for current Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff. Please use the below links to ILLiad, the ILL system, to sign-in or create an account; then use Interlibrary Loan to get the scholarly resources your research requires!

ILLiad Logon  Create ILLiad Account

How Does Interlibrary Loan Work?

The Interlibrary Loan Process:

• Having created an ILLiad account, search title and author in the WorldCat catalog and select the limiter for books (format).  Then look for the "Request Item through Interlibrary Loan" link for books not held by E. H. Butler Library.
• The Interlibrary Loan Office sends your request to 15 lending libraries at a time.
• Each library has four days to fulfill or decline the request. If declined, because the title is checked out or the volume/issue is missing, the request goes to the next lender in the string.
• If all 15 lenders decline the request, it comes back to the Interlibrary Loan Office, and we submit the request to another group of 15 potential lenders.

Interlibrary Loan materials can be picked up at the Circulation Desk. Failure to pick up Interlibrary Loan requests may result in a $10 fine on your library account.

Since books may be unavailable, non-circulating, or shipped from afar, requests could take anywhere from 3-15 business days to fulfill. Articles usually take between 1-4 business days because they can be scanned and sent electronically or faxed. It is unlikely that we will be able to obtain textbooks, CD's, DVD's, or Blu-Ray materials.

Use SUNY Resource Sharing

Look for the "Request from another SUNY library" link under the sub-heading "How to Get It" when searching for a book using the library's ALLsearch discovery tool.

Select SUNY Catalog in ALLsearch when using the Advanced Search option:

Click the request link if available:

Contact the ILL Office

See Also

Interlibrary Loan FAQ