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Document Requests (Staff)

Document requests, also called document delivery, are when you receive a request from someone requesting a specific article, book, etc. This SOP focuses more on working through the process of fulfilling a document request, rather than finding documents. Therefore, while this will cover finding documents, it assumes you already know how to do so. If you don't, ask someone for help. Most of the team is familiar with this process.

Document requests include requests for:

  • Specific articles, dissertations, reports, or other content identified by name
  • Books or book chapters
  • Textbooks

Restrictions and conditions

Let's get some of the not-so-fun stuff out of the way.

For everyone:

  • Please ensure each document request is submitted individually. If a student has multiple requests, ensure that you open a new request for each document.
  • We aim to deliver documents within 1-10 business days.
  • We only provide digital copies of articles, so no physical copies will be mailed.
  • This service is completely free for students.
  • If a request costs over $75, we might have to cancel it. Check out the Requests Canceled Due to Cost section for more details.
  • Due to copyright restrictions, we can't provide entire e-books. We can only deliver up to two chapters or 10% of a single work, whichever is less
  • Sometimes, we might not be able to fulfill a request if the document isn't available through Article Galaxy (Reprints Desk).
  • If a student provides an incomplete citation, we'll do our best to find the document. If we can't, we'll ask them for more information before canceling the request.
  • If a student makes more than three document delivery requests at once, we'll need to get approval from the library supervisor. We don't usually provide articles for extensive bibliographic research.

For alums:

The same policies apply to alums, with a few exceptions:

  • Alums can only request one purchased document (such as an article, book chapter, etc.) per month.
  • Unfortunately, they can't loan books through our document delivery service.

Book loans:

  • Book loans are available to current students, faculty, and staff only. Alums can't borrow books.
  • Students, faculty, and staff can only loan one book at a time.