News & Blog

Congratulations to Kristine Shrauger for winning the 2023-24 Excellence in Professional Service Award!

This faculty award is to honor a member who demonstrates a record of excellence in service to the University of Central Florida and professional service. Besides contributions to the library profession, Kristine has served on the Faculty Senate for nine years, including several years as the Secretary.

Only one Professional Service Award is available each year for the entire university. We are so proud of Kristine to be the first librarian winning this award!

Hello, everyone! My name is Diamond Williams; I am a second- year double- majoring in Criminal Justice and Writing & Rhetoric. Welcome to the first installment of Diamond’s Hidden Gems, a blog series in which I introduce you to the University of Central Florida’s library services that you may not have known about!

Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Services (ILL/DDS)

If you’ve attended the University of Central Florida (UCF) for long, chances are you’ve heard someone mention “ILL” or “loan services” in passing. From professors to library staff themselves, the ILL department is incredibly popular, but remains an under-utilized resource for students! Below, I give you a simplified run-down of the ILL department and the service you should be making use of before you graduate.

There is nothing more terrifying than being asked to locate full PDFs of research articles or primary sources for a class assignment. Maybe you’re the type of person who spends hours scouring the internet for a free version of a journal issue or book chapter. Maybe you look for sites you could purchase from. If either of these things sounds familiar, you can end this needless and costly search by making use of UCF’s ILL services.

The ILL department processes virtual requests for materials from other libraries and our own in-house collection.

This means you* can request and receive free books, articles & more with just a few clicks of your mouse!

*If you are a UCF retiree, a currently enrolled student, staff, or faculty member.

ILL services save you time, energy, and money by doing all the hard work for you.

By filling out a one-page request (a step you can skip by finding the material on the UCF library website first), you’ve avoided all the hassle of finding ineffective versions of the document you need.

I created a step-by-step guide that shows you exactly how to request, track, and view the materials you need!

If you want to contact the office for inquiries, call 407-823-2383 or email illbor@ucf.edu.

Our featured question for February 2021 is: “What do I do if the article/book I need isn’t available through UCF Libraries?”

Interlibrary Loan is the service for you!  Does your article have the Request Item/See Options link?  Have you searched the Books/Catalog for a title and it doesn’t come up in your search results?  If so you can use the free service available to UCF students, faculty and staff.  They can borrow a physical book for you from another library or get the PDF of an article.

The video that was here is out of date and has been archived. Click here to download the video for viewing.

For more information go to library.ucf.edu/services/borrowing-from-other-libraries/

No library can possibly have every book or article, and when you are doing research there are times where you need something that the UCF library just doesn’t have. This is when you need to call in the experts at the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) office. Libraries call this resource sharing, a way for libraries to make their resources available to each other in an efficient way.

Where do I go to make an ILL request?

Go to the Borrowing from Other Libraries webpage. There is a video introduction to the ILLiad software showing you how to make a request.

Things to think about

1. Don’t wait until the last minute to make your resource list for a project or paper. Interlibrary loan can take from 7-10 business days for a book (depending on where we get it from – it could be from Florida or from California). So, request your books early!
2. Articles are sent electronically within 3-5 business days typically. So, request your articles early!
3. While it seems like a good idea to interlibrary loan textbooks, most often other libraries will not lend them. Academic libraries generally keep textbooks on reserve for their own students and don’t share with other libraries. So, please keep this in mind.
4. We always try our best, but we are not miracle workers. That means that we can’t always fill your requests 🙁. Out of 16,000 requests from all of you last year, we filled 90% of them. Those are amazing stats, by the way.

Have any questions? Contact the Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Services Department in the John C. Hitt Library 2^nd floor room 222. You can also call us at (407) 823-2383 or email us at  illbor@ucf.edu

Next time you check out an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) book, you may notice that it now comes with a brand new, reusable UCF book strap around the cover. From now on, books that we borrow from other libraries’ collections are getting dressed up with these straps in order to help protect and preserve their covers as our own students, faculty and staff use them. In other words, adhesive labels are out – and book straps are in!

In order to comply with a new policy to better preserve ILL materials, book straps must now be used in lieu of adhesive labels. Our reusable book straps are a ‘greener’ option because they eliminate the need to create paper straps for each book, which not only reduces paper usage, but also gives our staff more time to find those items you need! Going forward, new paper labels are being designed to fit inside each book strap pocket, which will help cut the cost by decreasing our usage of the pricier adhesive labels.

If the next ILL book you pick up comes with one of our new book straps, please avoid removing it, and make sure to return it along with the book. In the future, a replacement fee may apply for any book straps that are not returned. As a friendly reminder, all ILL items may be returned to the library book drop, Circulation Desk or directly to the ILL Office located in the John C. Hitt Library.