Interlibrary Loans and Document Supply
The Document Supply Services team provide postal loans, a scanning service, and manage interlibrary loans for our members. We also offer a service to other universities and libraries who can borrow our materials or request copies of items from our collections.
Member services
Do you need a book or a journal article which the library doesn’t have?
Simply log into the Interlibrary Loan Portal and fill out a request form. You can log in to the portal using your library membership number.
The interlibrary loan service is open to all members, however some requests may include a fee depending on your type of membership. All articles or book chapters are free for any member when ordered through our RapidILL service. All Interlibrary Loans are free to School of Advanced Study students and staff.
If you are not a SAS student or staff member, and would like to place an interlibrary loan request, we recommend that you check with the library at your own college or institute. They will usually offer interlibrary loans for free, or at a lower price.
Any questions? Contact us by email
SHL members can request a scanned copy of a book chapter or journal article that is held in our closed stacks or in off-site storage, without visiting the library. With our scanning service, we will scan and email you an electronic copy. This service is free for all SHL members, except for day ticket and weekly ticket holders.
We will not scan the following:
- Requests for more than one article from a single journal issue
- Requests for more than one chapter or more than 5% of a book
- Anything on the open shelves on floors 4–7
Our reproductions and digitisation service can scan and digitise items from our Special Collections and Archives. There is a charge for this service.
To request a scan, please complete our reproductions and digitisation services form, or click the ‘Request a Scan’ button on our library catalogue.
- Readers with borrowing membership can borrow books via post using our Postal Loans service. Books are posted to UK addresses only.
- The charge is £9.00 per order, regardless of the number of books, within your borrowing allowance.
- In the case of large or heavy books, we may need to add an additional charge. We will always confirm this with you before shipping.
- Periodicals, and items marked ‘reference only’ may not be borrowed.
- Orders are placed via the University of London online store and are normally shipped within three working days.
Information for other libraries
Our document supply service provides other libraries with original items on loan, and digital copies of book excerpts, journal articles, law reports, conference papers and other items. We supply libraries in the UK and overseas.
Copies are supplied for non-commercial research or private study, in line with UK and EU law, on the understanding that the end-user signs a copyright declaration before the copy is supplied to them.
Library copies are usually shipped by web download. We will send you a link via email so you can download the document and supply a printed copy to the end-user.
Items are usually loaned for 4-6 weeks at a time, with free renewals available upon request up to a maximum loan period of 24 weeks. Library Loans are always shipped by Royal Mail.
Items are usually loaned for home reading, although some items marked as ‘reference only’ may be loanable for library use only. We do not loan some categories of material. E.g., journals, government publications, maps, items in Special Collections, items more than 100 years old and DVDs/Videos.
Most University of London theses are available through the British Library’s EThOS service. We can also supply original theses from the University of London distance learning programmes, for loan to libraries in the UK.
Theses are always loaned for library use only and may not be photocopied while on loan.
Email shl.document.supply@london.ac.uk with details of the item you require. If you would like to pay using a British Library account, please include your British Library account number and a request reference.
- If we cannot supply the item, we will let you know within a few days. Otherwise, the item will usually be supplied within 7 working days.
- If your Library is based outside the UK or Republic of Ireland, we will send you a payment request before supplying the item. You can then either confirm you will send IFLA vouchers to cover the cost, authorise us to debit your British Library account, or make a secure online credit or debit card payment on the University of London’s website.