How much does it cost to get an article or book through interlibrary loan?
Answer
Generally, interlibrary loan (ILL) is free to users. On those rare occassions when there is a cost, we will notify you before processing your request so you can tell us if you want it or not. If we are charged by another library or company, we do pass that on to the user if they still want the item.
For books, libraries sometimes pass the postage costs on to the borrowing library. Charges vary from $5.00 to $40.00.
For articles, the most common costs are copyright royalties. This usually comes because the same patron has requested too many articles from one issue or journal title from the last 5 years. Costs are set by the publisher and vary between $15 and $40 per article.
When requesting an item, it is recommended that you set the maximum cost at $0.00. We will notify you of any expected costs and you can then decide if you want to pay them or not.