If a journal article or a book you are looking for is not available from any of the Yale libraries, you can always use our interlibrary loan service to get it from another library outside of Yale. This tutorial will demonstrate how to use the interlibrary loan service through the Medical Library website. 

Try Borrow Direct first if you are looking for a book ...

Borrow Direct service is available for books, and it is normally much faster than regular interlibrary loan. For details on how to use Borrow Direct, please see the "Using Borrow Direct" tutorial. 

Interlibrary loan service is free of charge to Yale affiliates when an article or book is not available in the Yale collection. Therefore before we place an interlibrary loan request, we should check if the Yale Library really does not own the item in any format. You can use Orbis -- the library's online catalog, and the E-Journals and E-Books Databases to check our print and electronic holdings information. For instructions on how to use Orbis, please see our help files for Orbis.  For instructions on how to use the E-Journals and E-Books Databases of the Library, please see the "Finding E-Journals" and "Finding E-Books" tutorials.

Once you have decided that the book or article you are looking for is really not available at any Yale library in any format, you can proceed to use our interlibrary loan service.

You can access our interlibrary loan service from the Medical Library home page. There is a link for "Request Materials" under "Services" in the left column of the page.

On the next page, click on "Yes I am a Yale patron".

Next click on "Not at Yale":

In step 3, select your material type:

In step 4, choose your interlibrary loan options:

1. You can set up an ILLiad account, which will make interlibrary loan requests easier for you later. Here is a tutorial on the benefits of using ILLiad.
2. Or if you prefer not to set up an account, simply fill out the interlibrary loan form.

If you click on the Interlibrary loan form link, a window will pop up providing relevant copyright information. Click on the "I accept these restrictions" link after reading it.

Now you need to provide information about the article or book you want as well as your contact information.

Is there a way to avoid all this "fill-in-the-form" hassle?

Absolutely! Now you can access interlibrary loan service from within any "Yale Links" enabled database, and send ILL requests from there without having to fill out the form and without having to leave the database you are searching! Please refer to the "Interlibrary Loan Via Yale Links" for details.

After you submit your request, an email message will be sent to you confirming your request. When the item is available, another email message will be sent to notify you.

In most cases, InterLibrary Loan articles are delivered electronically - the email message you receive provides a link and a PIN number. You can use that link and PIN number to download the article you requested.

Interlibrary loan books, when they are available, can be picked up at the Library's Document Delivery Office.