Interlibrary Loan

How many Interlibrary Loan items can I request?

• LSC students are limited to 5 active Interlibrary Loan requests. Once an article is received, the request is no longer active; one a book is returned, the request is no longer active.
• LSC faculty are limited to 10 active Interlibrary Loan requests.
• Community Borrowers do not have Interlibrary Loan privileges with the college but may use the local public library for Interlibrary Loan requests.

How will I know when my Interlibrary Loan items have arrived?

When a book arrives, you will be notified through your LSC email account. Items are kept at the Circulation Desk in the Library. Most articles are scanned and you will be sent an email with a URL where you can retrieve them. Articles not available electronically will be sent in hard copy to the Circulation Desk and an email will be sent to your LSC email account when it arrives.

How long do Interlibrary Loan items take to arrive?

• Books: Turnaround time varies greatly depending on the type of material, the location of the lender, etc. Allow ample time (a week or more) to ensure that you will get your materials.
• Articles: Most articles are available from the University of Minnesota and are sent electronically. These are generally available within 2-3 days. Other articles (not owned by U of M) will take longer.

Requests are processed within 24 hours Monday through Friday with the exception of unusual or hard-to-find material. All requests are treated as priority. Materials are always ordered from local libraries if possible. The “need-by” date does not speed up processing of requests. It tells us how long we should keep looking for items not readily available.

Borrower’s Responsibilities

The person whose Library Barcode appears on the Interlibrary Loan request is responsible for lost, damaged, or overdue materials. Lending libraries, not LSC, determine the amount of time you can borrow the materials and they also determine replacement costs and late fees. The borrower is responsible for the prompt return of Interlibrary Loan materials. Overdue items will result in a block for future Interlibrary Loan requests.

A late fee of $5.00 is assessed for items not returned by their due date. Once LSC Library is billed and pays the invoice you will no longer be able to return item/items. A hold will be placed on your student records for the amount of the invoice the Library receives from the lending library plus a $10.00 fee assessed by the LSC Library.

LSC Borrowing Restrictions

Libraries participate in Interlibrary Loan voluntarily. Access to another library’s materials is a privilege not a right. Each library determines which materials it will and will not lend. Some materials are not available through Interlibrary Loan and cannot be requested. These restricted materials include:

• Textbooks
• Reference books
• Materials available at the LSC Library, unless declared Lost or in repair
• Full-text articles available through the library databases (EBSCO, Gale, etc.)

LSC Library Lending Restrictions

• LSC Library does not lend items from Reference or from the Instructional Media collection.
• LSC does not lend current license exam review materials as they are in high demand with LSC patrons.

Copyright Restrictions

LSC must adhere to copyright law. Most books are available through Interlibrary Loan. Photocopies of journal/magazine articles are available subject to copyright restrictions. Copyright restricts any library to request no more than one article from the same issue of any journal/magazine published in the last 5 years during one calendar year. Therefore, LSC Library can request no more than 5 articles from the same journal/magazine published in the last 5 years.

A late fee of $5.00 is assessed for items not returned by their due date. Once LSC Library is billed and pays the invoice you will no longer be able to return item/items. A hold will be placed on your student records for the amount of the invoice the Library receives from the lending library plus a $10.00 fee assessed by the LSC Library.