The Interlibrary Loan Department staff will attempt to obtain any materials that you may need for your research. Usually, these are books and journal articles (photocopies), but can also include microforms, dissertations and theses, foreign material, government documents, patents, and industry standards. If an item is not owned by the University Library system, or if it is missing and the Circulation Department staff cannot locate it, the Interlibrary Loan Department will try to obtain it. See the Items Not Available Through Interlibrary Loan section for exceptions.

If you are a graduate student placing orders for a faculty member, please use the faculty member's ILL Express! account. Also see the Faculty Information section.

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.

If you are a graduate student placing orders for a faculty member, please use the faculty member's ILL Express! account. Also see the Faculty Information section.  

We recommend that you return your materials directly to the Interlibrary Loan Department.  You will be responsible for any late fees, replacement costs of lost material, and cost of damages billed to us by lenders.

Overdue materials block you from interlibrary loan borrowing privileges.  If you have overdue ILL material, you will be unable to access your ILL Express! account.  Further abuse of the interlibrary loan service can result in the loss of your interlibrary loan borrowing privileges and also may result in suspension of your circulation privileges.  If you are a USC student, your registration activity may also be placed on hold for failure to return interlibrary loan books.  Failure to return materials on time can damage the library's relationship with the libraries from which we acquire materials and may prevent us from borrowing from those libraries in the future.

The lending library, not our Interlibrary Loan Department staff, sets the conditions for each loan. We cannot change these conditions, and we ask patrons to honor them. 

The lending library may restrict the use of materials to use within the library only, and may also disallow copying or renewal.  Restrictions are noted on the ILL Express! label on the front of your borrowed item.  The lending library has the right to recall a loan at any time.

The due date for loans is three weeks from the date the item is processed in the Interlibrary Loan office, unless otherwise noted. Patrons are expected to keep track of the due dates and to return materials on time.  If you receive overdue notices, you are expected to return the material that day or the following day.  Materials should be returned to the Interlibrary Loan office or to the Thomas Cooper Library Circulation Desk.  

We do not recommend returning interlibrary loan material to drop boxes.

Please do not remove the ILL Express! identification bands that are placed on all borrowed items.  We need them so that we can correctly identify your materials and process them for return to the lending institutions.

Fair use, as determined by U.S. Copyright law, Title 17, Copyrights, United States Code 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 user requests more than one article from one issue of a journal, the Interlibrary Loan Department 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 Department 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 Department 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 Department staff reserves the right to restrict such purchases.

For most materials, interlibrary loan service is provided free of charge.

There may be a fee for a dissertation that we are unable to obtain through normal means, but in this case, the dissertation will belong to the patron.  Please see our Dissertations and Theses section for more information.

Patrons must pay for any overdue or replacement fees billed by the lender if an item is returned late or lost.  Patrons must also pay for any damage fees if we are billed by a lending library.

For Photocopies:

The article delivery method we use depends on the nature of the item and the options you choose with ILL Express!.

Your options are:

• Hold for Pickup - the item will be held at the Thomas Cooper Library Circulation Desk
• Mail  to Address - photocopies will be mailed to your campus office or mailbox.  We mail photocopies only to Campus Mail addresses.
• Electronic delivery if Possible - the article may be delivered to you electronically.  Electronic delivery is possible only when the lending library sends the article to us electronically.  This option requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader software, which is available from Adobe at no charge. You will also need either Internet Explorer or Netscape.  You may have problems reading the files if you are using Netscape version 4.5.  Earlier and later versions of Netscape should work; however, we recommend using the most recent version of your browser of choice.  To download the latest version of Netscape, visit the Netscape Download Page.  You can read more about electronic delivery in the Electronic Delivery section on the ILL Express! Help page.

For Books and Other Loans:

You may choose to have your books and other returnable items held at the Thomas Cooper Library Circulation Desk, or delivered to the Music Library or the Business Library. 

If you would like to pick up your materials at either the Music Library or the Business Library, and have not yet registered for ILL Express!, be sure to select "Business Library" or "Music Library" as your Preferred Loan Delivery Location when completing the registration form. 

If you already have an ILL Express! account and would like to change your Delivery Location to either the Business Library or the Music Library, logon to ILL Express!, click on Change User Information, and make the change under "Preferred Loan Delivery Location".  Click on the "Submit Information" button at the bottom of the form to record your new delivery preference.

Note: A picture ID is required to pick up interlibrary loan books at the Thomas Cooper Library Circulation Desk, the Business Library or the Music Library.  You will be asked to sign and date a loan slip. You may designate an authorized user to pick up materials for you.  For more information, see the Designating an Authorized User section of the ILL Express! Help pages.

Some theses and dissertations are available through interlibrary loan at no charge.  

Always include your citation source in the Citation Information field when requesting a dissertation or thesis.

American Dissertations:

Each library has its own policy regarding the loan of dissertations.  The Interlibrary Loan Department staff can help you determine the availability of dissertations from other libraries.  As an alternative, the Interlibrary Loan Department staff can facilitate your purchase of an 8 1/2" x 11", unbound dissertation from ProQuest.  You can place an order for the dissertation you need through ILL Express! and then check with an Interlibrary Loan Department staff member to verify its availability via Dissertation Express.  After we have verified availability, payment must be made at the Circulation Desk.  Once we have a copy of the receipt, we will send your request immediately.  We usually receive the unbound dissertation within 4 to 5 business days.

Foreign Dissertations:

Dissertations produced in other countries (except Canada) are generally more difficult to locate and take longer to obtain.  If they are obtainable, they can take as long as 6 to 12 months to arrive.

For more information on ordering theses and dissertations, see the Theses and Dissertations section of the ILL Express! Help page.

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Faculty Information

If you are a faculty member at USC-Columbia, we encourage you to use the Faculty Express! program for time-sensitive requests. The Faculty Express! program provides expedited access to research materials needed by the faculty at USC-Columbia.  This service ensures not only speedy processing of your requests, but also personalized follow-up as needed. You can initiate Faculty Express! by clicking "yes" to the Faculty Express option on the ILL Express! request form. If you have special needs, such as a conference, publication or grant deadline, please use the Notes area to indicate them.  Filling in the "I would like this by date" will also help us fill your requests by your deadlines.

You may wish to designate an authorized user to pick up materials for you.  Authorized users may also place requests for you using your account.  Please do not have assistants use their own ILL Express! accounts for faculty orders.  You may add or delete authorized users through the ILL Express!  Main Menu by clicking on the Change User Information button near the bottom of the menu.

Our new Scan and Deliver service supplies articles from the Thomas Cooper Library stacks directly to your desktop.  This service is available at no charge to faculty members at any of the University of South Carolina campuses.  At this time, only items held in paper format (not electronic) at USC-Columbia's Thomas Cooper Library are available through this service.  We will scan and deliver journal articles and book chapters.

For complete information see the Scan and Deliver policies.

Industry standards are not usually available through normal interlibrary loan channels; they may be ordered directly from the organization issuing the standard or purchased from a commercial provider.

Please check at the Science Library Reference Desk on Level 4 of Thomas Cooper Library to be certain that the standard you need is not already available at the library.

To request a standard, use the Request a Standards Document form and provide as much information as possible about the standard you need.

Always include your citation source in the Citation Information field when requesting a standard.