Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service offered by the HJF to gain access to specific resources you are not able to access through the library or that are freely available on the web. Please check the library holdings and Google Scholar for the item you are seeking before requesting an ILL.
You are only able to request physical items and electronic articles via ILL. eBooks and streaming video/audio is not available via ILL.
ILL for physical items such as books or dvds can take 7-10 business days for students on campus as these items must ship through the postal service. Graduate students who need the items then shipped to them can expect it to take 10-15 business days.
ILL for electronic articles can be as quick as 1-2 business days as they are sent via email as a PDF attachment. Make sure you check your Morningside email for that ILL request. We do not send to non-Morningside emails.
Interlibrary Loan Instructions
To request an ILL, go to the library's website and enter the specific title of the item you are looking for in the discovery search at the top of the page.
Once you get the search results, look to the left and notice the limiters. Under those limiters you will see an option for "Library" and see that Morningside University is checked. By default the discovery searches the library holdings first. Click "Libraries Worldwide" to change your search results from only our holdings to all library holdings. If you returned 0 results on your first search, you should see a link to click for searching "Libraries Worldwide."
Now you should see your item in the search results. If you do not see it in the first couple of results, try placing "quotes" around your item's title and resubmitting the search. Also double check spelling and make sure you have the correct title. For articles, you want to search for the article title and not the journal title.
Once you have your result and have clicked on it, take note of the libraries that own it. Less than 10 libraries means we may not get the item. We are also only able to request from libraries in the US.
Current Morningside students may use their student ID to check out books from the Sioux City Public Library, Briar Cliff University Library and Western Iowa Tech Community College Library. All you need to do is head down to the location with your student ID.
Graduate students may find that their local library has access to the same item and it would therefore be quicker to use the public library to gain access to the physical item than to wait for it in the mail from us.
Once you are certain you want to request an item via ILL, click the red "Request Item Through Interlibrary Loan" button and fill out the form on the next page.
Please include a "Needed By" date that is far enough in the future. This is a date we stop trying to get the item, not the date we start, so give us enough time to get it for you or once the date is reached, it will automatically be removed from our processes.
That's all you need to do. Please contact the HJF Library if you have any troubles, questions, or concerns. We are happy to help.
