Interlibrary Loan activities are governed by Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. For more information about Fair Use and Copyright please see the Copyright Quick Guide produced by Columbia University’s Copyright Advisory Office.
Interlibrary Loan & PALShare
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) and PALShare are services provided for current Butler University students, staff, faculty, and emeriti faculty to obtain materials not owned by Butler University Libraries from other libraries, or as a last resort, commercial document suppliers.
Both PALshare and traditional Interlibrary Loan are accessible through the “Request through Interlibrary Loan” button in our WorldCat Discovery online catalog. The button is configured to route a request to a PALNI institution if available, and to the wider ILL network if necessary. Either way, users will manage these requests via the same library account page now that we’re moving off of the ILLiad platform.
PALShare
PALShare is a speedy loan service between PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana) libraries, with whom Butler shares its WorldCat Discovery catalog. Since items ordered through this service typically will arrive within a few days, the “Request” button in our WorldCat Discovery catalog will route you to a PALShare request if possible.
If an item is available through PALShare, simply click the Request button, log on with your Butler University username and password, select a pick-up location, and click Submit.
- All books ordered through PALShare have a loan period of 60 days
- All DVDs and CDs have a loan period of 14 days
- PALShare items may not be renewed
- You can check the status of your request by signing back in to your account (with Butler credentials) in WorldCat Discovery
- If traveling outside of Indianapolis, Butler patrons are able to borrow in person at other PALNI libraries, and the standard PALShare loan terms will still apply
Interlibrary Loan
Before you submit an Interlibrary Loan request, please check our online catalog (WorldCat Discovery) to make sure Butler doesn’t already own the item. For articles, please check the journal title of your citation in Journals A-Z to make sure we don’t already have online or in-library access to the article you need.
Then, login to your library account to:
- Submit requests (use the Requests tab)
- Check the status of your requests (under the Requests tab)
- Retrieve electronically delivered articles
- Request renewals for loaned items (in the Checkouts tab)
For all ILL questions contact Sarah Damery at 317-940-9677 or sdamery@butler.edu.
Academic Libraries of Indiana (ALI) Borrowing
Butler users may also borrow materials in-person at other Academic Libraries of Indiana (ALI) partner institutions—see the ALI brochure for more information.
- All eligible Butler users (current students, faculty and staff) will be configured in our library system to make an interlibrary loan request
- Most classes of university affiliates (and alumni) are not eligible for interlibrary loan requesting privileges
- All articles are delivered electronically; physical items will be available at the requested pickup location.
- File ILL article requests directly from an online database (EBSCO, JSTOR, etc.) whenever possible. This limits mistakes made in entering information into the request as the Find Full Text button will pass citation data directly onto the ILL request form
- Check the online catalog (refine by format if necessary) or Journals A-Z before filing a request—if we have access to an item already, you don’t need to wait on ILL
- Articles found in journal volumes owned by Butler can be requested as an interlibrary loan; staff will scan and send a PDF (self-service is of course always an option)
- Please be discriminating when it comes to requesting items through ILL. Even though Butler users are not charged for the interlibrary loan service, there are still costs to the library. When someone orders materials and never picks them up, it pulls staff away from processing other requests quickly, and costs the library for each transaction.
- Please remember public libraries may not lend certain materials to us (CDs and DVDs specifically). If you are a Butler student, or live in Marion County, please use the Indianapolis Public Library yourself instead of asking Butler University Libraries to borrow from them via ILL—you’ll be able to borrow as an individual registered user in a way Butler sometimes can’t as an ILL partner.
- Most journal articles usually arrive within 2-4 days (although sometimes the same day, if we’re lucky), depending on the lending library. Loans of books or other physical materials can take up to 14 days to arrive—this is out of our control, and is based on how diligent the lending library is, how far away they are, and the shipping method used.
- To request a renewal, login to your library account and view your Checkouts. You may also request a renewal by email at ill@butler.edu
- Not all ILL materials are renewable; the decision is at the discretion of the lending library
The Libraries absorb all the costs connected with borrowing material through ILL. However, if an item is lost or damaged, the borrower will be expected to pay replacement costs after we are billed by the lending library.
Interlibrary Loan materials may not be placed on reserve for course access. Please contact your library liaison to see if a purchase may be a better option. If you are merely considering an item for potential course usage, ILL is certainly a great option.
Lending libraries set their own loan periods based on their own policies and the type of item loaned, but it is usually at least 4 weeks plus one renewal, though that is not always the case. All loans must be returned by the due date—turning items in late jeopardizes Butler’s borrowing relationship with other libraries and can have negative consequences for all of campus. Repeated failure to return loans on time or frequent loss of borrowed items can result in being blocked from using interlibrary loan services.