Requesting Interlibrary Loans

As a part of Penn State University, Dickinson Law students and faculty have access to vast physical and digital collections throughout the University Libraries system. However, there may be times when the resource you are looking for is not available through this system. In these instances, you can utilize Penn State’s Interlibrary Loan services to fulfill your research needs.

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service that allows you to request materials that the University Libraries do not have. Library staff are able to fill Interlibrary Loan requests by borrowing items from other libraries outside of Penn State. These items are then shipped to the borrower’s home library where they can be checked out. Interlibrary Loan can also be used to request specific articles which are unavailable through Penn State’s databases.

How Does It Work?

If this is your first time using Interlibrary Loan, you will need to create an ILLiad account.

To use WorldCat, search their database for the item you want to request. Once you have found a copy of it, select the “View access options” button and then choose “Request Item through Interlibrary Loan.

This link will take you to a request form pre-populated with the material’s information from the WorldCat entry. Make sure all the information is correct, then submit the request.

If you already know all the information needed to make your request, you can skip WorldCat and manually enter the request yourself under the “Submit New Requests” tab on the ILLiad home page.