Interlibrary Loan Policies and Procedures for USC Beaufort North and South Campus Libraries

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Table of Contents

  1. Interlibrary Loan Service and Eligibility
  2. Requesting Materials
  3. Cost
  4. Available Materials
  5. Items Not Available Through Interlibrary Loan
  6. Restrictions
  7. Time Required
  8. Delivery Options
  9. Due Date and Return of Materials
  10. Renewals
  11. Regional and Four-Year Campus Shuttle Schedule
  12. Patents
  13. Industry Standards
  14. Dissertations and Theses
  15. Fair Use and Copyright Law

Interlibrary Loan Service and Eligibility

Interlibrary Loan is a service through which books or journal articles not owned by the USC Beaufort North or South Campus Libraries may be obtained from other libraries or commercial document suppliers. This service is available to faculty members, currently-enrolled students, University staff, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute members in good standing, and eligible alumni who live in the Beaufort  area. Persons affiliated with the University's Columbia and Four-Year campuses should use their respective Interlibrary Loan departments. Technical College, high school and community patrons should use their respective school and county libraries.  Please note that we cannot accept orders for textbooks.  

Check the library catalog database for material you need to ensure it is not already held by the USC Beaufort North or South Campus Libraries.

The Interlibrary Loan Office is located in the South Campus Library behind the Reference Desk.   The office is open from 1130 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays.  You may contact Dudley Stutz, USCB South Campus Interlibrary Loan Librarian by phone at (843) 208-8160 or by e-mail at uscbill@uscb.edu

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Requesting Materials

Please use ILL Express! to place all of your requests.

You should carefully check the library catalog to be certain that the item you need is not already held by the USC Beaufort North or South Campus  Libraries.  If you need an item that is listed as lost in the library catalog, you may order it through interlibrary loan with a note indicating the lost status.

To avoid requesting items that are held on campus, be sure to check the library catalog for citations that you find in the electronic databases.

If the item you need is found in the library catalog but is held by another USC campus library, include the location and call number on the request form with the full citation. 

Please cite the source of your information if possible. In the case of electronic sources, this may include the name of the database you used or the URL of the web page or database containing your reference. If your citation came from a book or article, please provide the complete bibliographic information, including page numbers. In the case of a journal, giving us the complete title rather than the abbreviation helps us process your request more quickly. This helps both our library and the lending library identify exactly what you need. If you have questions about what information to include, ask a librarian or staff member.

Please fill out the request form as completely as possible so that we can provide you with quick, efficient service.

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Cost

Interlibrary Loan service is provided free of charge for books obtained within the USC system.  There may be charges for books obtained outside the USC system. If so, these charges will be passed on to you. There is a charge of $.10 per page for photocopied material received from the lending library via shuttle, mail, or Ariel transmission.  

Available Materials

The staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department will attempt to obtain any materials that you may need for your research.  Usually, requests are for books and journal articles (photocopies), but they may also include microfilm, microfiche, dissertations, theses, and government documents.

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Items Not Available Through Interlibrary Loan

The following materials are usually not available through interlibrary loan:

Please note that we cannot accept orders for textbooks 

Contact the Interlibrary Loan office at (843) 208-8160 or e-mail: uscbill@uscb.edu  if you have questions about what materials are or are not available through Interlibrary Loan.

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Restrictions

The lending library, not our Interlibrary Loan staff, sets the conditions for each loan. We cannot change those conditions, and we ask patrons to honor them. The lending library may restrict the use of materials to "within library only," or it may disallow copying or renewal. Any such restrictions are noted on the loan slip.  The lending library also has the right to recall a loan at any time.

Materials obtained through Interlibrary Loan are for your exclusive use and are your responsibility from the time they are picked up at the Circulation Desk until they are returned. You will be responsible for any late fees, replacement costs for lost material, and costs for damages.

Abuses of the Interlibrary Loan service may result in the following: a loss of your Interlibrary Loan borrowing privileges, a suspension of circulation privileges and, if you are a USC student, a hold on your registration activities. Failure to return materials on time may damage the relationship the USC Beaufort  Library has with the libraries from which we acquire materials and may prevent us from borrowing from those libraries for any of our patrons.

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Time Required

Once orders have been placed, Interlibrary Loan materials may be received as early as next day or as late as two or three weeks. Speed of delivery depends upon a number of factors, e.g., when the order is placed, how soon a lending library is identified, where it is located, and when/how it processes and ships the requested materials.  In the case of photocopies, delivery has been greatly speeded with the introduction of Ariel software which allows articles, images and other documents to be scanned at one location and delivered to another via the Internet. Books, on the other hand, are still delivered by "snail mail," often 4th class, and may take several days to arrive at their destination.

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Delivery Options

For Photocopies:

We can deliver photocopies to you in two ways.  The method we use for any particular item depends on the nature of the item and the options you choose with ILL Express!

The options you can choose are:

For Photocopies, Books and Other Loans:

We hold all photocopies, books and other returnable items at the Library Circulation Desk for pickup.  A student ID may be required to pick up these materials.

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Due Date and Return of Materials

Unless otherwise noted, the due date for loans is three weeks from the date the item is processed in the USC Beaufort South Campus Interlibrary Loan office. Materials should be returned to the Circulation Desk, or to the appropriate Interlibrary Loan office, on or before the date indicated on the item.

Please do not remove the ILL Express! identification band on borrowed items. We need it so that we can correctly identify your material when you return it.

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Renewals

Renewals may be requested  using ILL Express!, but the final decision on granting a renewal rests with the lending library.  Only one renewal per item is allowed.

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Regional and Four-Year Campus Shuttle Schedule

Books and photocopies requested on Interlibrary Loan from USC-Columbia and regional or four-year campus libraries arrive at the South Campus Library on Monday afternoons via the weekly intercampus shuttle.

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Industry Standards

The preferred method for obtaining industry standards is to order them directly from the organization issuing the standard or to purchase them from a commercial provider. Some industry standards are available at the Thomas Cooper Library in Columbia. Please check the library catalog to be certain that the standard you need is not already available within the USC system.

Requesting a standard:

Use ILL Express! to request a standard, providing as much information as possible.

You may find the information about the standard you want by searching the following standards databases:

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Dissertations and Theses

Theses

You may be able to obtain a thesis through Interlibrary Loan as most libraries will lend these materials.

Dissertations

American Dissertations:

Each library has its own policy regarding the loan of dissertations. The Interlibrary Loan staff can help you determine the availability of dissertations from other libraries.

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Fair Use and Copyright Law

Fair use, as determined by Title 17, Copyrights, section 107, allows for the reproduction of copyrighted material for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. The categories used in determining fair use are:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

U.S. copyright law, Title 17, Copyrights, United States Code, strictly limits the ability of the Interlibrary Loan staff to obtain journal articles. Under section 108(d), "Limitation on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives," libraries are authorized to furnish a photocopy. 108(d)reads:

"The rights of reproduction and distribution under this section apply to a copy, made from the collection of a library or archives where the user makes his or her request or from that of another library or archives, of no more than one article or other contribution to a copyrighted collection or periodical issue, or to a copy or phonorecord of a small part of any other copyrighted work, if-

(1) the copy or phonorecord becomes the property of the user, and the library or archives has had no notice that the copy or phonorecord would be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research; and

(2) the library or archives displays prominently, at the place where orders are accepted, and includes on its order form, a warning of copyright in accordance with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation."

If a patron requests more than one article from one issue of a journal, the Interlibrary Loan staff must pay a copyright fee through the Copyright Clearance Center or must purchase the article from a commercial vendor. If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. The Interlibrary Loan staff reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in our judgment, fulfillment of that order would involve violation of the copyright law.

The National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) has developed a set of guidelines to assist libraries in fulfilling their duties while adhering to copyright law. CONTU guidelines (or the "suggestion of five") permits the copying during a calendar year of no more than five articles from a single journal title, not owned by the library, dated within the past five years. This means that the Interlibrary Loan staff can order a total of only 5 articles from a single journal title dated within the past 5 years regardless of how many users request articles from the same journal title. For articles obtained in excess of this number, the Library must pay a fee to the Copyright Clearance Center or must purchase the articles from a commercial vendor. The Interlibrary Loan staff reserves the right to restrict such purchases.

If you are interested in learning more about these issues, you can visit the Copyright & Fair Use site hosted by Stanford University Libraries.

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This page was last updated February 27, 2008.
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