Interlibrary loans

To enable your research, teaching and study at UNSW, use interlibrary loans (ILL) service to request an item not held by the UNSW Sydney Libraries and UNSW Academy Library Canberra.

The interlibrary loans service is available to UNSW staff and students. You may request books, book chapters, journal articles, audio-visual materials, reports, conference papers, archival and other materials.

Related information:

Request and collect an interlibrary loan (ILL) item

  1. Check that the item is not held in the UNSW Library collection.
  2. Sign in to complete the ILL request form.
  • Requests are free and usually take 5-10 working days to process.
  • Loans sourced from overseas libraries can take up to 4 weeks to arrive.
  • Urgent requests are not available.
  1. You will be notified via your official UNSW email when a requested item is available.
  • Collect books from your nominated pickup location.
    • Main Library: collect from the Request pickups lockers near the Help Zone on Level 2.
    • Law and Paddington Library: collect from the Reservation shelf in the High Use Collection room.
  • Digital copies will be sent to your UNSW email.
    • Keep all records of the digital copies supplied via ILL.
    • Loan details of journal article and book chapters are not retained in myLibrary, so remember to keep your own records if you need them.
  1. To view your current and past book ILL details, sign in to myLibrary. Under Loans, select Active loans or Previous and historic loans.
  2. You will receive a cancellation email to your official UNSW email if the item cannot be sourced.

Loan periods and renewals

Due dates and renewal conditions are noted on the ILL book strap. You can also view due dates in myLibrary under Loans.

  • Interlibrary loans are not renewable in myLibrary.
  • To renew an item, contact the Library via email or phone.
  • Interlibrary loans may be recalled at any time, and you will be notified by email of any change to the due date.
  • There is a $1.00 charge for every day the loan is overdue - for more information see Fines.

Returns

Return your interlibrary loans in person or by post to any UNSW Sydney Library.

  • The ILL book strap must remain on the item.
  • Defacing, mutilating or damaging interlibrary loan items in any way will result in replacement cost fees being charged to the borrower - the cost is determined by the lending library.

Copyright

All interlibrary loan requests submitted by UNSW staff and students must be made in accordance with the Australian Copyright Act. Under the Act, libraries can supply a copy of an article or other work as long as the copy is only used for research or study and the amount copied is in accordance with the limits prescribed by the Act.

The limits are as follows:

  • 10% or one chapter of a book.
  • One article per journal issue, or more if those articles are on the exact same subject.

The Library reserves the right to refuse an interlibrary loan request if it believes that fulfilling the request would breach the Australian copyright law. For more information see Copyright.

Non-UNSW theses

Many non-UNSW theses are available to download via open access institutional repositories. For information on finding non-UNSW online theses see Theses.

  • Some print copies are available for loan and can be accessed via the interlibrary loan service.
  • Theses held in closed collections of other libraries and not available for download or loan cannot be accessed via the interlibrary loan service.
  • Conditions of access to a thesis are determined by the author and holding library, and are outside the control of UNSW Library.
  • Contact the owning library or institution directly to enquire about purchasing a thesis.

Contact us

Email: ill.one@unsw.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9065 9443
Opening hours: from 10.00am to 4.00pm, Monday to Friday
Postal address: DCA Resource Sharing, UNSW Library, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, AUSTRALIA