Interlibrary Loan and USMAI Borrowing

The SU Libraries offers two services for getting books from libraries outside of Salisbury University.

USMAI Borrowing

USMAI Borrowing allows you to borrow books (but not articles) from the 16 other institutions in the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI). These items can be requested through SURF by clicking the “Request from UM System Library” button in the “How to Get It” section of an item’s record in SURF. Be sure to select “UM System Libraries” in the dropdown next to the search box when performing your search.

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Items requested through this method usually arrive within 3-5 business days.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) allows you to request books and articles from libraries all over the world. If an item is not available in any USMAI library, you can use our Interlibrary Loan system to submit a request for the item. Our staff will try to find a library willing to lend the item to us so we can pass it on to you.

You can submit an Interlibrary Loan request by clicking the “Request through ILL” button in SURF. However, as SURF is the online catalog for USMAI, most items will not offer this option as they are already owned by a USMAI library. To search for items held by libraries outside of USMAI, we recommend searching using WorldCat. From SURF, you can get to WorldCat using the link in the External Search section of the left sidebar on the search results page.

In WorldCat, click the “View Access Options” button to find the “Request Item through Interlibrary Loan”link. If you have never submitted an ILL request before, you will be prompted to create an account. Then, you will see a request form with the item’s information filled out for you. Add any additional information you like, then submit your request.

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Click the “view access options” button to get to the ILL request link.

Books requested through ILL typically take 7-14 days to arrive. You will be contacted by email when it is available for pickup. Articles can be delivered much more quickly, usually anywhere from a few hours to a few days. You will be able to download the article PDF from your ILL account once it is available.