Inter-library loans

Obtaining resources from the British Library and other university libraries (available to all students and staff)

Students and staff at the Medway campus have access to:

a wide range of printed materials held in the Drill Hall Library (the Drill Hall), which are obtained in consultation with the academic schools of the partner universities;
printed materials from the University of Greenwich libraries at Maritime Greenwich and Avery Hill, which can be ordered via the catalogue and sent to the Drill Hall for collection;
a range of e-resources, including e-journals and e-books provided by your home institution; and
(University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University students) printed materials from your home institution libraries in Canterbury, which can be ordered and sent to the Drill Hall for collection.

If the universities’ libraries do not hold the materials that you need, we may be able to obtain them through the inter-library loan (ILL) service. Requests should be limited to material required for academic work.

Most ILLs are sourced through the British Library. If the British Library does not have an item, we will try to source the items from other libraries, usually through the Copac Group.

These pages will show you how to use the ILL service. They also give information on how to access the post-doctoral theses collection.

If you need any help finding the resources that you need, please contact your subject librarian or visit the Student Support Zone for help from the duty librarian.

The inter-library loan service

How to use this service

Complete an Inter-Libraries Request Form, which are available from the Welcome Desk, the Student Support Zone or you can download a copy.

Ensure that you:

fill in all relevant details of the requested item. For books you must include the title, year and author. For journals you must include the journal title, article title, author, volume, year and page numbers;
read the copyright declaration information on the form and sign to confirm your acceptance. For photocopies, a copyright declaration must be signed to comply with UK copyright law (further information on copyright legislation is available on the British Library website;
ask your tutor or other designated person to authorise your request form (please note that some schools restrict the inter-library loan (ILL) facility, for example, to final year students or for work relating to a dissertation); and
tick the relevant box on the request form if you would like to have an article supplied electronically via Secure Electronic Delivery (SED) to your desktop (optional).Your article will be sent to your university e-mail address.

When you are satisfied that you have followed the above steps, hand your completed form in at the Welcome Desk.

Timeframe for delivery

ILLs can take up to three weeks to arrive, so it is advisable to bear this in mind when planning your work.

Generally, however, journal article usually arrive within two to three days and books three to four days.

If an item is on loan to another reader it may take longer to arrive. We will notify you of any delay.

Collection/delivery

Books and photocopied journal articles

These will be sent to the Drill Hall Library (the Drill Hall) for collection from the Welcome Desk. You will be informed via your university email when items are ready for collection.

SED to your desktop

The article will be sent to your university e-mail address. Note that you will need to download the article from the link in the British Library e-mail within 30 days of the e-mail’s date.

To download and print on campus you must be logged into:

a PC in the Drill Hall; or
a university networked PC that is connected to a printer (you will need to make sure that your PC has FileOpen and Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 or above installed on it).

To download and print off campus, eg from your home PC, you will need to install the File-Open Plugin and Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 or above. The British Library e-mail includes instructions on how to do this.

Look at our Instruction sheet for more information on where and how to download your SED article. Note that you can only:

open the document once from the British Library e-mail;
download the article to a PC hard drive or a network drive, eg your home area;
print the article once; and
view the document in Adobe Reader for up to 14 days from the date of download.

You are advised to save articles to the PC you want to print from.

Do not save articles to a memory (USB) stick as you will not be able to print it.

If you have problems activating the link or downloading an SED article please read the frequently asked questions for FileOpen provided by the British Library. Alternatively contact the ILL department at the Drill Hall.

Loan periods

British Library/ILLs are for three week periods only. Printed articles are yours to keep.

Charges

To comply with current copyright legislation, we have to make a charge for photocopies (5p per A4 page) of ILL articles printed by the Drill Hall for you to collect.

Renewals

British Library/ILL books are loaned to you for three weeks. It may be possible to renew them for a further two weeks, but this is subject to the approval of the British Library or the lending library. This renewal is free of charge.

If a further renewal is required, students are required to pay a charge (currently £4.15) in advance (NRI students need to apply for a renewal via their tutor using an ILL form). The renewal is subject to the approval of the British Library or the lending library. At least three working days’ notice is required to apply to the British Library for book renewals. Please bear this in mind when making a renewal request. Renewals can only be made in person at the Welcome Desk during library core hours of 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.

Returns

Returns must be made to the Drill Hall Welcome Desk.

ILL queries

For further information on ILLs please contact one of our ILL academic support assistants.

E: Andy Major	E: Sandy Andrews
T: 01634 883408	T: 01634 883597

Some useful links to library catalogues

Post-doctoral theses

Obtaining UK post-doctoral theses (all researchers)

Post-doctoral theses must be requested via Ethos, the British Library's digital repository website. Each researcher must first register individually with Ethos in order to make requests through the site. (Note that MA/MSc theses are excluded from the ILLs service.)

The Ethos page provides more information.

Each university also has its own academic research repository, which will include some PhD theses*. Each repository is searchable but each has different levels of functionality, eg view only etc.

The repositories for each university are:

GALA - University of Greenwich;
KAR - University of Kent*; and
CReaTE - Canterbury Christ Church University.

*Kent PhD theses will be added to KAR in the future. View Kent’s theses and dissertations page for current arrangements.

Requests from other libraries

The Drill Hall Library’s Inter-Library Loans (ILL) service accepts requests for photocopies or loans from other UK libraries for items that show a location of Medway campus on our catalogue.

The following categories of material are not available for loan:

study loans;
overnight loans;
DVDs/CDs;
reference material;
whole volumes or issues of journals;
any material in high demand; and
PhD theses: apply to Ethos.

Photocopy requests must comply with current copyright regulations and be of a non-commercial nature. To apply email the ILL team quoting your British Library account number and your reference number. Our charges are in line with current British Library charges and will be claimed through your British Library account.