Interlibrary Services for External Organizations & Individuals

Interlibrary Services (also known as interlibrary loan) is a service through which outside libraries and organizations can request to obtain books and articles from The UT Libraries.

Document Express is a service through which individuals not affiliated with UT can request to obtain scans of book chapters and articles from the UT Libraries collection for their personal research.

Who is eligible?

• Outside organizations such as non-OCLC libraries, corporations and other organizations may use Interlibrary Services to borrow items or obtain scans from the UT Libraries collections for a fee.
• Individuals not affiliated with UT who are performing academic or personal research may use the Document Express service to obtain scans for a fee.
• Most Texas public libraries and college-level libraries may use Interlibrary Services free of charge.

What can outside organizations request to borrow?

• Books, dissertations, theses, microfilm.

Restrictions:

• We cannot loan out non-circulating materials, which include Audio/Visual materials, bound or current serials, special collection materials, original newspapers, rare or archival materials, and any item that is in poor or fragile condition.

What can outside organizations and individuals request to be scanned?

• Articles and book chapters from our print collections.
• Articles and book chapters that are 50 pages or less - one article or chapter per request form.
• Entire books published before 1923 (page limit and exceptions below still apply).

Restrictions:

• There may be licensing restrictions that prohibit us from supplying articles from our electronic journals and databases.
• We cannot scan items in poor or fragile condition and books in their entirety.
• Copyright laws may apply.

How long is the loan period?

Our loan period is 16 weeks (starting on our ship date) with no renewals.

How will materials be delivered?

Scans of articles, book chapters and UT Austin theses and dissertations are delivered via email or posted to our server for restricted download. Loans of materials can be delivered via USPS, UPS or FEDEX. All international loans ship USPS Priority Mail International.

How much do these services cost?

Pay for interlibrary loan or DocX items with a credit card using our online payment portal

Credit card payments using our online payment portal requires you to create a user account in our system. 

Registering with our portal is a one time, but three-step process:

Please note that for future requests, the only step required will be to log in and pay within the portal when you receive the invoice via email from the portal system.

1. Register for a user ID (called an electronic ID or EID) by using this link.
    
   • During the registration process you will be asked for the following information: Last Name, Date of Birth, 3 Security Questions, 1 Password.
   • Select your Country. Non-US locations please enter “00000” in the required zip code field
   • Please enter your email address during the registration so we may send the receipt for your payment. The process should take about 5 minutes.
      
2. Once you have completed your payment portal account registration, email us your EID so that we may create the invoice in the portal and provide the link for payment.
3. Once your payment clears in the system, we will email your requested item. You will also receive an email receipt of payment from the portal.