Q. What is "ILLiad" Interlibrary Loan?

ILLiad is the name of the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system used by the College Libraries.  As a member of the SUNY Potsdam community, you can create an account in ILLiad that you can use at any time to request books, articles or other materials that we do not have available, from another library.  Books, videos, sound recordings -- essentially anything that requires the loan of a physical item -- are picked up and returned at the Circulation Desk in Crumb Library.  Copies of articles and book chapters are scanned and delivered as electronically as PDF files that you can access and use.  All information on your loan availability is sent via email.

To obtain material, we must be able to identify a library that has the material and is willing to loan or copy what you have requested.  The lending library sets the loan period and determines whether or not the item can be renewed.  Once we make a request to another library, they can fill it or pass it on to another potential lender.  Generally, articles are received in 3-5 days and books in 5-10 days.  You can visit our Interlibrary Loan office in Crumb Library during regular business hours to check on the progress of a loan request if you have a question.  They can also be reached by email at ill@potsdam.edu.

Once you have an ILLiad account, you can log on at any time to manage loans, request renewals, view the history of your loans, etc.  You can also enter a request for a book, book chapter, video or article directly from within your account. 

However, most of our databases support the generation of Interlibrary Loan requests directly from the citation -- in WorldCat for example, you will see an Interlibrary loan link that allows you to request a loan whenever you can see that we do not own the material.  The Article Linker button or the "check for full-text" link from article citations in our databases will check to see if we have full-text access and link you to the article. If we do not have it, you can generate an ILL request from your database search results by logging into your ILLiad account. 

You can have up to 15 active ILL requests at any one time.  Loaned material is due back by the date the lending library assigns.  If you have overdue ILL materials you will be charged just as with material you borrow from our libraries. You will be "disavowed" when you attempt to use the ILL service.  If you have any questions about your borrowing status, please contact ILL staff at ill@potsdam.edu or drop by the ILL office in Crumb Library during regular business hours.

See more information about Interlibrary Loan.