The Simmons College Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Department borrows and obtain copies of library materials in all formats not found in a Simmons’ collections, on behalf of our students, faculty, and staff. The ILL Department also lends and provides copies of Simmons-owned materials to other libraries. No library can be completely self-sufficient in meeting the needs of its users. ILL is essential to the vitality of libraries of all types and sizes. It is an important element in the provision of library services, and it is in the public interest to encourage such an exchange. This is an age of expanding information, a growing technology for sharing that information, and ever-increasing standards for scholarly and scientific endeavor.
Please feel free to call the ILL office at 617-521-2746 or email ill@simmons.edu with any questions. It is best to contact the ILL office with questions about a specific request. For more general information about ILL, you can also contact the Reference desk at 617-521-2784 or the Circulation desk at 617-521-2780.
The ILL office is located in L121D, behind the Beatley circulation desk. During the school year, we are in the office Monday – Friday, 8:30AM – 4:30PM. During the summer, we are in the office Monday – Thursday, 8:30AM – 4:30PM, Friday 8:30AM – 2:00PM.
Please note that you do not necessarily need to pick up your ILL books during ILL office hours – ILL books are held at the Beatley circulation desk (or at the SOM Library for SOM graduate students) for pickup, so you can pick them up any time the Library is open. Please see http://my.simmons.edu/library/hours.shtml for more information about library hours.
Current students, faculty, and staff of Simmons College can use interlibrary loan. Alumni of Simmons, and students of the other Fenway Library Consortium colleges CANNOT use interlibrary loan at Simmons. Please use the interlibrary loan services at your current academic institution, or your local public library.
The status of "Graduate Student - Distance Learner" is only available to students registered in the following programs:
The Interlibrary Loan Department obtains books, articles, dissertations, and book chapters on behalf of the Simmons community. Items on reserve in the Simmons Library and textbooks may not be requested. There are certain materials that lending libraries are sometimes not able to send out on ILL. These include recently published books, rare books, reference books, and some audiovisual materials. Please contact ILL for alternatives.
It is difficult to estimate how quickly ILL materials will be delivered, because each ILL request is sent to a string of up to five lending institutions. Each institution has four business days (weekends and holidays excluded) in which to respond to the request. As a result, we don’t know in advance which institution will be filling the request, which makes it hard to predict how long it will take. In theory, a request could take up to 31 calendar days to move through the entire string.
That being said, ILL books usually take about one week to arrive; materials sent from within Massachusetts are delivered via a courier, which reduces turnaround time. Article requests take 3-4 days on average, and some are received within 24 hours. To make the best use of the interlibrary loan service, plan ahead!
We ask that patrons limit themselves to five requests per week. In order to be fair to all of our users, ILL staff may move requests beyond your fifth to our “long-term processing” queue. These requests will be processed after all others have been finished.
Requests will be processed in the order we receive them. So, it is a good idea to prioritize your requests, and place the most important ones first, particularly during busy times of the semester, such as the final exam period.
You will receive an email when your ILL books and articles arrive.
Most ILL articles will be delivered to you electronically. The notification email you receive will link you to the main ILL page. Log in, then click “View Received Articles”. Available articles will have a link next to their title directing you to a list of your electronic copies. Articles will remain available for 30 days after notification. In order to receive articles electronically, you must have Adobe Acrobat, which you can download for free.
Students: Your books will be held at the Beatley circulation desk for pickup. Please return them to the same location.
SOM Graduate Students: Your books will be held at the SOM Library for pickup. However, the books are all received at Beatley first, so please allow an extra day for intercampus delivery. You may return your books either to the SOM Library or directly to the Beatley circulation desk.
Faculty/Staff: Your books will be delivered to you via intercampus mail, unless you have contacted ILL staff (ill@simmons.edu) to indicate you would rather have them held for pickup at Beatley. You can also return your books to the ILL department via intercampus mail, or return them directly to the Beatley circulation desk.
ILL books will be kept on the hold shelf for you until the due date. At that time, we will return the book to the lending institution, and send you an email that we have done so. If you need to re-request the material, feel free to do so using the online request form or by contacting ILL staff via phone or email.
Lending libraries decide how long to circulate their own materials; loan periods vary from two weeks to a whole semester. When you receive a book via ILL, it will come with a paper slip noting the due date. Most books circulate for about four weeks. If you need more time, you can request a renewal online using your ILL account.
All renewals of ILL materials must be approved by the lending library. You can request renewals online: log in at the main ILL page, select "View/Renew Checked Out Items," and click on the item number you want to renew. Ideally you should request renewals about one week before the due date; renewals cannot be requested after the due date.
Renewals are usually granted for about two weeks, though practices vary from library to library. Some libraries do not allow renewals at all. After requesting a renewal, you will receive an automated email within a few days indicating whether your renewal was approved, and if so, the new due date.
You can only request one renewal per item online. If you need more time, please contact ILL staff in L121D at 617-521-2746 or ill@simmons.edu.
The Copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyright material. There is a provision for "fair use" by libraries. In 1976, a government commission was convened to interpret what "fair use," meant. This interpretation is known as the CONTU guidelines. Simmons College follows the CONTU guidelines. Interlibrary loan is allowed five articles from any one journal title for a one-year period. After this limit is reached, the library must pay a royalty fee for each subsequently ordered article.
Yes, if Simmons’ copy of a book is checked out, you can request another copy from ILL.
You can cancel some ILL requests online by logging into your ILL account at http://libfs1.simmons.edu/illiad/ and clicking on “view outstanding requests.” Your requests will be listed there, and some will contain a link you can click to cancel immediately.
Other ILL requests cannot be cancelled online, especially if they have already been sent out to other libraries. Please contact ILL staff at ill@simmons.edu or 617-521-2746 for more information.
Some libraries only send their books out on ILL if the borrower agrees not to let the item leave the library. This is often the case with rare or delicate materials. If a book you requested is not allowed to leave the library, this will be noted in the notification email you receive when the item arrives. ILL staff will make all possible efforts to obtain circulating copies of materials.
Please contact ILL staff at ill@simmons.edu or 617-521-2746 to let us know as soon as possible. When we request a book from another library, the book becomes our responsibility from the time it is in transit to us until it is returned to the lender. Therefore, if you lose or damage an item, ILL staff reserve the right to bill you for replacement costs.