InterLibrary Loan (ILL)

Eligibility

Current Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) students, faculty, and staff may request items not owned by Columbia University or any of the Borrow Direct institutions through the Health Sciences Library (HSL) InterLibrary Loan (ILL) service.

Students, faculty, and staff enrolled in or employed by programs located on the Morningside Campus should request InterLibrary Loan service from a library on that campus.

Staff of NewYork-Presbyterian hospital associated with CUIMC should contact us at hs-library@columbia.edu to request an interlibrary loan.

Staff of the New York State Psychiatric Institute should contact the appropriate organization within the New York State system.

Consult the Health Sciences Library's Who Can Use the Library for more information.

Making a request

If you have found a citation in PubMed or WorldCat:

The e-Link icon (what's e-link?) that you normally use to get the full text of an article provides easy access to the ILL form.

  1. Navigate to your article (or book) record.
  2. Click on the e-Link icon.
  3. Select the 'Interlibrary Loan' link from the lower portion of the screen.
  4. Enter your UNI and password as prompted.
  5. Choose your Columbia campus affiliation (i.e. Medical Center Campus). This step may not appear if you have already selected your campus affiliation earlier in your browser session.
  6. Confirm that the pre-populated fields are correct and click 'Submit Request'.
  7. When finished, click log off and close your browser window.

If you cannot find a citation in a database like PubMed or WorldCat:

After confirming via CLIO that Columbia University does not subscribe to the journal or own a copy of the title you are interested in, you can submit an ILL request by going directly to the Interlibrary Loan borrowing system, ILLiad, and filling in the citation fields manually.

  1. Log in to ILLiad
  2. Enter your UNI and password as prompted.
  3. Choose your Columbia campus affiliation (i.e. Medical Center Campus). This step may not appear if you have already selected your campus affiliation earlier in your browser session.
  4. Under the 'New Request' drop down menu, choose the type of request you would like to make.
  5. Fill in as many fields of the form as possible.
  6. Click 'Submit Request'.
  7. When finished, click log off and close your browser window.

Receiving requests

Articles are usually available within 2-3 business days of the request. You will receive an email when the article is available for viewing on ILLiad. When you receive the email, log in to ILLiad and select 'View', and choose 'Electronically Received Articles' from the drop down menu.

Books and audiovisual items will typically be available in 1-2 weeks for pickup at the Health Sciences Library. 

Loans periods, renewals, and returning materials

Loan periods vary based on the lending institution's policies. The due date is listed on the slip that comes with the item. Renewal requests must be requested at the HSL InterLibrary Loan service at least five days before the due date. There is no guarantee of renewal.

All borrowed items must be returned to the Health Sciences Library. Items returned late are subject to overdue fines and temporary suspension of borrowing privileges, as well as jeopardizing our ability to borrow from other libraries.

Costs

InterLibrary Loan service is provided free of charge to CUIMC students, faculty, and staff.

Borrowing Limits

The InterLibrary Loan service is subject to US Copyright law. Most libraries do not lend journals; borrowing an entire issue or volume is unlikely.

There are no restrictions on the number of items that may be requested, however, a large number of requests are subject to review by Library staff members.

Copyright notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

For more information, please email the Interlibrary Loan Office at hsl_ill@cumc.columbia.edu; or contact the Health Sciences Library.

Last updated: 1/2023