Eligibility for Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services
Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery services are available at no charge to WUSM students. Service fees are charged to:
- WashU Medical School faculty, staff, residents, and fellows
- WashU Medical Center/BJH physicians and staff
- Members of Becker Medical Library
See Requesting Materials (ILLiad System) for fee information.
Borrower’s Obligations
Borrowing materials from another institution is a privilege. You are expected to honor any restrictions that are stipulated by the lending library.
Special ILL Loan Restrictions
Lending libraries sometimes place special restrictions on the use of loaned items, as explained below.
Library Use Only
The lending library will not allow the item to be taken from Becker Medical Library. This means that you may check the item out from interlibrary loan and we will hold your picture ID while you use the material within the library building. When you return the item, please tell us you are finished with the item or will need us to hold it for further use.
No Renewals
The lending library will not allow renewals. This is a condition for borrowing from them. Such items cannot be renewed and must be returned by the original due date.
No Photocopying
The lending library will not allow the item to be photocopied. There may be copyright restrictions on the item, or the item may be subject to damage during photocopying. Please honor this restriction so we may retain our borrowing privileges.
Time Required
During most of the year, it takes an average of two days to obtain an article and five days to obtain a book through interlibrary loan. These times may increase by 40 to 50 percent during December due to holiday mail delays coinciding with increased end-of-semester workloads at the lending libraries. Many non-medical libraries do not lend at all during the winter holidays extending from mid-December through early January.
About 95 percent of the time it takes to fill your request results from processing that occurs outside of Becker Medical Library. This includes the time required for the request to be passed through the OCLC or DOCLINE interlibrary loan systems through a succession of possible lending libraries that we have identified. Once a library agrees to provide a loan or photocopy, that library retrieves the item from its collection, produces a photocopy when necessary, and ships the item. Time in transit to Becker Medical Library depends on the method chosen for shipping by the lending library. About 75 percent of the photocopy requests we receive are sent electronically via the Internet using a system called Ariel. About 15 percent of the articles are faxed. About 10 percent of the photocopy and most of the book loans are sent by the U.S. Postal Service library rate, which is a slow process.
We cannot predict the delivery time for any particular request. We do know, however, that:
- The average turn-around time for receiving books is 5.43 days.
- The average turn-around time for photocopies is 24 hours.
- If you have an emergency need for a book or document, please ask the interlibrary loan staff for assistance.
Interlibrary Loan Department Privacy Statement
Data We Require
If you request materials through ILLiad, we ask you to provide the minimum personal information to make it possible for us to deliver those materials to you.
Personal information requested by ILLiad is the minimum information that enables us to identify you as a student, faculty member or staff member of Washington University School of Medicine, of BJC North or South, or as a library member and to bill the necessary charges. For this, we need to know your:
- Name
- ID or member number
- Department or affiliation
- WU cost center
To deliver materials to you, we also need to know:
- Your phone number or e-mail address so we may contact you about your request
If you want materials delivered by mail or electronically we need:
- Mailing address
- E-mail address
To protect your personal data and information about your requests, you set a password that enables you to log on to ILLiad and access all your personal information and information about your requests. Only you know your password. It is encrypted and stored by ILLiad and cannot be read by anyone else.
How we use ILLiad Data
Your name, departmental affiliation and the bibliographic details about your request are sent to other libraries as part of the borrowing process. Your personal information allows us to easily and clearly identify incoming materials.
Information about your requests (not you) is retained for up to four years to allow us to demonstrate compliance with United States Copyright Law and with generally accepted copyright guidelines used by the library profession.
Information about the books and articles borrowed (not about individuals) for all clients is used to assist the library’s collection development personnel and ILL staff to improve the library’s collections.
Copyright Law and Library Photocopying
The full text of the copyright law can be found in the United States Code, Title 17-Copyrights. Copyright owners are assigned exclusive rights to their works, including the right to reproduce those works. The law defines several limits on exclusive rights that allow others to make copies of copyrighted works. Those engaged in teaching and research are granted certain reproduction rights in §107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.
Libraries are authorized to photocopy materials from their own collections for their clientele under the provisions of §108. Limitations on exclusive rights: reproduction by libraries and archives. Under the provisions of §108(d), the Becker Medical Library may photocopy a single article from a periodical or a chapter of a book and give the copy to a Washington University student, faculty, or staff member.
When obtaining photocopies of copyrighted works from other libraries through interlibrary loan, libraries must comply with the conditions defined in subsection 2(g) of §108. Limitations on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives. The basic requirement is that Washington University must not receive copies in “such aggregate quantities as to substitute for a subscription to or purchase of such work.” Just how much copying would violate this provision is not defined in the law.