Interlibrary Loans FAQ
Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a form of resource sharing between libraries for acquiring materials which are not part of their own collections. This service at the Brooks Library is offered to enhance scholarship and research, and to supplement our own holdings.
ILL and Document Delivery are available to faculty, staff, and students, both on campus and off.
Most libraries loan their books or send articles for free. In addition CWU ILL has reciprocal agreements with many institutions to share collections for free.
When a lending library does assess charges - For Students, Faculty, and Staff:
- CWU will subsidize up to $15.00 of any fee.
- If there is no other source but a library which charges more than our $15.00 maximum cost, you will be contacted for approval for the additional charge.
- When approved, any such charge will be added to your CWU Safari account.
- For an additional fee of $10.00 we will prioritize your request and alert the lender to do the same. Fees are assessed to help cover delivery costs.
- Photocopies are usually obtained within 3-5 working days, so Rushes are not recommended.
- If you have questions concerning Rush requests please contact the ILL Office at 509-963-1033 or at 509-963-2107.
- Monographs published after 1800, depending on the policy of the lender.
- Newspapers on microfilm as available.
- Masters theses and doctoral dissertations as available.
- Microfiche as available.
- Photocopies of journal articles or book chapters (observing the Copyright Law).
- Materials already owned by CWU collections in any format, unless declared missing or for some reason unavailable.
- Materials classified as reference or on reserve for classes.
- New materials in high demand.
- Unique, rare, bulky, valuable or fragile items.
- Returnable items such as books, government documents and microfilms may take up to two weeks to arrive depending on availability.
- Photocopies are usually obtained within 3-5 working days, so Rushes are not recommended.
- These are merely guidelines; there are no guarantees as to when the material will arrive.
- Call the ILL office at 509-963-1033 or 509-963-2107 for RUSH service information.
Please see instructions / information in the 1st two sections on our Interlibrary Loan Services page. There is also further information available on our Illiad FAQ page.
Also, any FirstSearch databases on our Databases By Title or Databases By Subject pages will have links on the Detailed Record pages labeled "Request from another Library", which will take you to our Illiad login page.
If you still have questions, please feel free to contact the Interlibrary Loans office at (509) 963-1033 or (509) 963-2107 or call our reference desk at (509) 963-1021.
- The ILL Office will contact you by email or by phone when materials are ready to use.
- For returnables, due dates and any restrictions will be noted on the book strap. Please do not remove the due date strap.
- Pick up is at the Circulation Desk, First Floor.
- Due dates are noted on the strap on the book. Please do not remove the due date strap.
- Most libraries have a three-to-four-week loan period, but may recall items at any time for their own patrons.
- Most libraries will allow one renewal. Non-renewable items will be noted on the strap.
- A request to renew can be done through your Illiad account up to one day prior to the item due date.
When finished with borrowed items, please return them to the circulation desk, first floor.
- Copyright Law applies to journal articles published within the last five years and not owned by the Brooks Library.
- Within those five years, a library exceeding five articles per periodical title per year, or one article per issue per year, must pay royalties to the publisher.
- These fees are absorbed by the Library.