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Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery: What is ILL?

Contact McFarlin ILL

ILL Email 

Amanda Ferguson

Terry Williams

Kathryn Thomas

General Information

Interlibrary Loan Information

What is ILL?

ILLiad is the system that allows members of TU's college community (excluding the law school) to borrow materials (that we do not own at any of the TU libraries) from other participating libraries. McFarlin Library cooperates with libraries nation wide to lend and borrow library materials to support research and education projects. It takes approximately 7 to 14 days to obtain a book and other printed materials through ILL. Articles are usually delivered electronically and they may take anywhere from a few hours to several days to obtain. Please allow sufficient time for items to arrive through ILL and request them as early as possible. Materials borrowed through ILL are fulfilled solely at the lender's discretion and not all materials can be borrowed through ILL.

Who can use ILL?

Interlibrary Loan services are available to all current full-time students, staff members and faculty members (including adjunct) at the University of Tulsa-excluding persons affiliated with the College of Law. All patrons associated with the College of Law must go through the Mabee Legal Information Center for ILL requests. Alumni, distance students, continuing education students, community students and visitors are not eligible for ILL privileges at McFarlin Library. If you are a member of any of those groups, then we recommend that you go through your local library for ILL services.

How do I request something?

You will need to create an ILLIAD account the first time that you use the system. You can use any username and password. After you have registered for an account, you can just go to the login page to request books and articles and other materials. Please use the appropriate form for the item that you need to borrow through ILL (ie. a book form for books, photocopy/article request for journal articles, conference form for conference articles, etc.)

Is this free?

ILL is a free service for our patrons, but it is not a free service for the library. There are costs associated with both borrowing and lending books through ILL.

Document Delivery

Document Delivery vs. ILL - What is the difference?

  • Document delivery is for requesting scans from print materials in the McFarlin collection.
  • Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is for requesting materials from other libraries.
  • Both requests are made through your ILL account.

Who can use document delivery?

  • Current TU faculty, staff and students may request scans of articles and book chapters from the McFarlin library's print collection, microfiche and microfilm.
    • These requests must not exceed copyright.
    • Requests may take up to 48 hours to fill depending on how busy the ILL office is.
    • Patrons placing more than 5 document delivery requests at a time should be aware that all requests may not be filled on the same day.

Note: Materials from Special Collections, the Mabee Legal Information Center (MLIC), Gilcrease and the University School are not available through document delivery.

New Users

click here to create an ILL account