Using Interlibrary Loan for Digital Articles and Scans of Physical Resources

If you need to access an item that is not in OSU Libraries' collection, you can request that item through interlibrary loan (ILL). ILL is available to all currently registered OSU students and allows you to access journal articles, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings, and scanned book chapters from other institutions' libraries. ILL can also be used to request physical books, which will be mailed to the OSU library of your choice—or your home address, if you're an Ecampus student.

To use interlibrary loan, first set up an account through the ILL site.

The video below will walk you through the ILL registration process:

Making an Interlibrary Loan Request

Once you have an account, you can search for the item you want through 1Search and, if it is unavailable through OSU Libraries, you will be presented with the option to request the item through interlibrary loan.

After you click "Request from Interlibrary Loan," you will be prompted to log in to your ILL account and fill out a page with information about the material you want to request. Once you have filled in all the necessary information, you can submit your request.

If the item doesn't have an entry in 1Search, you can still request it by logging into the interlibrary loan site and clicking "New Requests".

Watch the video below to see the entire ILL request process:

You will generally receive the requested material quickly—80 percent of the time, it will arrive within 13 hours. Physical books take longer, usually requiring 2-7 business days to reach the library.