The Health Sciences Library (HSL) provides you with access to a large number of print and online books. Use the following hints to help you find the book you need:

If you know the title of your book, search in CLIO, Columbia's online library catalog.

• You can limit your search to show only online resources, such as e-books.
• Use Inter-campus Delivery to request print books from other Columbia University libraries be delivered to HSL.
• Request book delivery from ReCAP, Columbia's offsite shelving facility. Books requested from this facility can be delivered to the Columbia library of your choice. Don't need the whole book? You can instead request scans of book chapters to be delivered to you via e-mail.

If Columbia does not own the book that you are looking for, first try Borrow Direct, which allows you to request materials from partner libraries such as Harvard, Stanford, and Duke. Borrow Direct loans usually arrive more quickly and can kept for as long as 16 weeks.

If you cannot find the book in CLIO or on Borrow Direct, you can submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request.

If you do not know the book you want, search by subject / topic.

If you are looking for current biomedical e-books, start your search with the HSL website. Otherwise, search CLIO.

Relevant Resources

• CLIO - Columbia University's online catalog
• Borrow Direct - Borrow Direct enables current faculty, students, and staff from Columbia to borrow books from peer institutions.
• Interlibrary Loan - If the book you want is not available at Columbia or through Borrow Direct, you may request it via ILLiad, Columbia's ILL service.