InterLibrary Loan (ILL) policies

Statement of Philosophy

As part of Preus Library, the Interlibrary Loan Department works to facilitate and support the teaching, learning, and scholarship of Luther College students, faculty and staff. The Interlibrary Loan staff strive to provide accurate, timely, and consistent service in a courteous and informed manner in order to provide the best service to our users.

Borrowing Policies

For more information about borrowing, see the Interlibrary Loan FAQ.

Eligibility
Students, faculty, and staff of Luther College are eligible for interlibrary loan privileges. Community patrons, alumni, and dependents of Luther College faculty/staff are not eligible to borrow materials through Luther College, but may contact their local public library for information on interlibrary loan services.

Fees
Preus Library does not charge for use of the interlibrary loan service. The library participates in a number of resource sharing agreements with other libraries, and utilizes these libraries first for obtaining articles and loans for free. Not all materials are available for free through interlibrary loan. If you are requesting materials for faculty research or a senior project, the library pays the cost as long as the per-item fee does not exceed reasonable costs. Other requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Materials available through Interlibrary Loan
Books, photocopies of articles, musical scores, government documents, and most ERIC documents are generally available. Dissertations, new editions of textbooks, microforms, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, and materials owned only by international libraries are less readily available but may be obtained in some cases.

The following types of materials are generally not available through interlibrary loan:

• entire ebooks (although single chapters/articles may be requested)
• books and films released within the last 6 months
• materials that are considered rare, fragile, or too valuable to lend
• reference materials
• articles or book chapters longer than 50 pages
• entire periodical or journal volumes

Note to off-campus users
We can provide articles electronically via email for faculty on sabbatical and students participating in study-away programs, internships, or student teaching. We will not mail books or other materials to you from the Preus Library collection or process interlibrary loan requests for books or other materials that must be returned to other libraries.

Interlibrary Loan Schedule
The Interlibrary Loan department follows the Luther College academic calendar. We try to provide interlibrary loan service during breaks and holidays if the library is open, but this is contingent on workload and student work schedules. Please plan accordingly when requesting interlibrary loans during scheduled Luther College breaks and holidays.

Loan Period and Restrictions
The loan period is determined by the lending library. Renewal requests should be submitted on your ILL account or to the Interlibrary Loan Coordinator in advance of the due date. Renewals are granted at the discretion of the lending library.

Restrictions such as No Renewal, No Photocopying, or In-Library Use Only may be imposed by the lending library and must be honored.

No Interlibrary Loan materials may be placed on Course Reserve in the library.

We reserve the right to restrict materials to “In-Library Use Only” and/or deny interlibrary loan privileges for patrons who consistently fail to return interlibrary loan materials on time.

Payment of Borrowing Fees
The library’s policy is to pay copyright or borrowing fees for interlibrary loan materials for faculty research and senior projects as long as the per-item fees do not exceed reasonable costs. Other requests for research materials that fall outside the scope of these guidelines are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Returning Materials
All materials borrowed through interlibrary loan, with the exception of photocopied articles and electronically delivered items, must be returned to the Circulation Desk on or before the due date. Materials may be recalled by the lending library at any time and must be returned immediately. Please leave all slips attached to the item(s). Returning materials late jeopardizes our ability to borrow from other libraries in the future.

Patrons are responsible for any damaged or lost items. The replacement cost will be determined by the lending library. The Luther College Interlibrary Loan Department will notify you of any charges. Please notify the Interlibrary Loan Coordinator at ill@luther.edu if you have damaged or lost your interlibrary loan material(s).

Note to lending libraries: We will not pay fines or replacement cost(s) for OCLC items that are no longer on Worldshare Interlibrary Loan. Items filled by other sources must be billed within one calendar year of due date.

Privacy and Account Access
Each interlibrary loan account is private and connected to one individual only. No one may submit ILL requests under another person’s name or access their account. Upon special request, it is possible for patrons to authorize another individual (such as a student worker, staff person, or spouse) to pick up and check out physical ILL materials from the Circulation Desk on their behalf. (Note: this does not include access to the patron’s online account or electronic downloads.)

Patrons remain responsible for any ILL materials on their account that are overdue, lost, or damaged, even if they allowed someone else to handle the material.

Copyright

Copyright Compliance
When requesting articles and electronic copies not held by Preus Library, our copyright compliance is guided by the Fair Use provisions outlined in Section 107 of the Copyright Act, and also by the CONTU “Rule of Five”. We will request up to five articles published within the last five years from a given journal title. For any number of articles beyond five, the library pays a copyright clearance fee or purchases the content. Additionally, our library will only request one article from each issue of a given journal title per user; requests for additional articles from that same issue are also subject to the copyright clearance fee.

For ebooks or scans of print book chapters, only one chapter or article may be requested electronically. If more than one chapter is desired, patrons are encouraged to request a full print copy of the book.

Copyright Declaration
Interlibrary loan materials may be restricted due to US Copyright Law.

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a copy or other reproduction. One of the specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research”.

If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopied reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. Preus Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order, if, in its judgment, fulfilling the order would involve violation of copyright law.

Lending Policies

What libraries are eligible to borrow Preus Library materials?
All US academic, public, and special libraries are eligible to borrow materials from our library. We also lend to Canadian libraries and international libraries. We charge postage for items loaned to libraries outside the United States.

Materials available through Interlibrary Loan from Preus Library
Books, journal articles, newspapers on microfilm, and dissertations (if in the library’s circulating collection) are all available for interlibrary loan. Articles longer than 50 pages may be supplied on a case-by-case basis. We will lend DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, reference materials, and Norwegian genealogy material on a case-by-case basis, with some lending restrictions. Restrictions may include in-library use only, no renewal, shortened check out time, return by traceable courier, return in box, and/or no photocopying.

Non-circulating materials at Preus Library
Our library does not lend full ebooks; periodical volumes; books with “New Book” status; materials considered rare, fragile, or too valuable to lend; materials on reserve; or books in our Leisure Reading collection.

How to request an interlibrary loan
We prefer requests through OCLC Worldshare and SILO, but will also accept interlibrary loan requests via email and mail. Please use ALA request forms, if possible, when not requesting through Worldshare or SILO.

Interlibrary loan fees
We are a free ILL lender and hope that you are too. We are a member of LVIS, IPAL, and AMBC, all organizations that agree to lend library materials at no charge. We lend free to all libraries within the United States, unless there are extraordinary costs involved with RUSH requests and fragile or oversized materials. We charge postage to lend to international libraries.

Loan periods
Our usual loan period for items is 12 weeks. We allow a 1-month renewal, unless there is a recall/hold on the item.

Delivery methods
We use the US Postal Service as our delivery carrier for most loans, but will use UPS for items requiring tracking and/or insurance. For electronic delivery, we use Article Exchange and email. We are a member of the MOBIUS/IaLA Courier Service network, and we send items via courier service to participating libraries in the region.

Interlibrary Loan Schedule
The Interlibrary Loan department follows the Luther College academic calendar. We try to provide interlibrary loan service during breaks and holidays if the library is open, but this is contingent on workload and student work schedules. Please plan accordingly when requesting interlibrary loans during scheduled Luther College breaks and holidays.

Replacement Costs
We will notify libraries with overdue materials in excess of four weeks regarding the replacement costs. Whether or not a library receives an overdue notice from us, the borrowing library is responsible for a $40 replacement fee plus a $20 processing fee for each Preus Library item lost. If our library does not receive the interlibrary loan material(s) back, the borrowing library is responsible for the replacement cost, even if documentation indicates the item was mailed back.

References:

• Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States prepared by the Interlibrary Loan Committee, Reference and User Services Association, 1994; revised 2001. Approved by the RUSA Board of Directors January 2001.
• Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States Explanatory Supplement January 2001.
• United States Copyright Law from Title 17, US Code.
• Policies on Copyright Law and Fair Use. Preus Library, Luther College.
• A Manifesto for Rethinking Resource Sharing. Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative, 2007.
• Modern Interlibrary Loan Practices: Moving Beyond the CONTU Guidelines. Association of Research Libraries. August 31, 2020.

Updated May 25, 2022