--Ways to Request Books
-Requesting Local Books
-Requesting through Interlibrary Loan (Including Article and Chapter Scans)
-Campus Delivery
-Request Times
In brief, there are a few ways to request books.
- You may request items in the WashU Libraries, at which point they will be put on hold.
- You can also submit a borrow request through InterLibrary Loan (ILL), which searches for material at libraries world-wide.
- Note: Before requesting a book through ILL, please make sure it is not available in a campus library by searching the WU Libraries Catalog.
Additional Information on Requesting Materials:
To request an item from one of WashU's Libraries, you may:
- Click the 'Request' button on an item's page in the Classic Catalog
- Navigate to the item's Classic Catalog record by searching for it in Quick Search, and click the 'Get It!' button on the item's record.
For more information, please contact Olin Circulation at 314-935-5420 or circ@wumail.wustl.edu with any questions or concerns.
- Books are available for pickup usually within 1-2 weeks at the Olin Library checkout desk.
- You will be notified by e-mail when the book arrives. For additional information on ILLiad, please see our InterLibrary Loan page.
Note: The Law Library and Becker Medical Library process Interlibrary Loan materials separately, so if affiliated with Law or Medical School, place ILL requests through your home school.
Requesting Articles or Book Chapter Scans through ILL:
- Washington University faculty, staff, and students can request print articles or book chapters from our collection to be scanned via our Interlibrary Loan platform.
- If it's in the stacks we'll scan it, and if it happens to be checked out we can request it from another library instead. Keep in mind that we have to adhere to copyright fair use guidelines and cannot scan entire books and journals.
- If you are faculty interested in having an article or book chapter scanned and placed on electronic course reserves, you can find information on how to place a request on our Course Reserves page.
Materials from WashU Libraries or Interlibrary Loan (ILL) can be delivered through Campus Delivery.
Faculty and staff may select Campus Delivery as the pickup location. (Campus Delivery is included as a pickup location in the Libraries’ catalog and ILL.)
Materials will be delivered to the primary mail stop code that is listed in Workday. More information here
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Requests:
- Arrival times for physical items requested through Interlibrary Loan will vary depending on where the item is coming from and the response time of the lending library. You can monitor the progress of the request through your ILLiad account.
- Requests for articles will arrive as scans and will appear in your ILLiad account within a day or two.
- You can monitor the progress of the request through your ILLiad account.
