Faculty, students, and staff who have a valid Brown University ID and are in good standing with library circulation are eligible to borrow materials through the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. There is no service fee.

Individuals who are not affiliated with Brown University should contact their home institution or local public library’s interlibrary loan service for assistance.

Most books, photocopies of journal articles, and other materials can be obtained through ILL. However, Brown is unable to process ILL requests for materials intended for course reserves, class use, or other group activities.

To request materials, start by registering for an ILL account through Brown’s interlibrary loan system, ILLiad. Once you're registered, you can log in anytime to place new requests and track the status of existing ones.

You can submit ILL requests directly through the library catalog, BruKnow or online databases such as WorldCat Discovery. 

More options for obtaining materials from other libraries:

• BorrowDirect (https://brown-borrowdirect.reshare.indexdata.com)
  BorrowDirect provides expedited delivery of books from Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Delivery may take 3-5 business days.
• Check Journal A-Z to see if the Library owns the journal in which your article appears and if it is available to request through ILL. Electronic delivery can take 24 to 48 hours.
• Visit area libraries where you can borrow items with a Brown ID.

• Once a lending library accepts our request for books or physical materials, shipping takes approximately 7 to 14 business days. BorrowDirect books take approximately 3 to 5 business days. All physical materials arrive at the Rockefeller Library.
• Copies of articles and book chapters and document delivery will take from 24 to 48 hours for electronic delivery.

Loan periods are determined by the lending library and typically range from two to six weeks, and up to 16 weeks for items borrowed through BorrowDirect or other academic libraries. Due dates will be indicated on the item’s wraparound band. All Interlibrary Loan materials must be returned by the due date unless you've made other arrangements with the Interlibrary Loan office. Please note that items may be recalled by the lending institution at any time.

If the item’s wraparound band states that renewals are not allowed, please do not submit a renewal request. Just return the item by the indicated due date.

If you would like to renew an item, contact the ILL office at interlibrary_loan@brown.edu or 401-863-2169 and request a renewal at least four days before the due date. Our team will request a renewal from the lending library. Overdue books cannot be renewed. 

ILL materials must be returned to a Brown library by the due date marked on the ILL bands. ILL privileges will be suspended for overdue items until we receive the item. Possible late fees will apply depending on the lending institution.

The standard replacement or lost item charge for ILL material is $150 per item.

Interlibrary loan is a library-to-library service. If you've identified an item held by Brown that you wish to access, please contact the interlibrary loan department at your home institution or local public library to request it on your behalf.

We can lend most items from our circulating collection, including dissertations and theses when circulating copies are available. Any item in our catalog marked “Use in Library” is non-circulating and not eligible for loan.

If you've found an item in our online catalog that is held at the John Hay Library, which is Brown’s special collections library, please note that it cannot be borrowed via ILL. However, researchers may still be able to access special collections materials by submitting a request through Aeon.

Our preferred method for processing interlibrary loan requests from other libraries is through ILLiad (Brown’s symbol is “RBN”). However, we also accept ALA request forms sent via email to interlibrary_loan@brown.edu.  
Note that we do not process requests from individuals — only from libraries. 

Brown University charges a $15.00 service fee per request. Our preferred payment method is Interlibrary Loan Fee Management (IFM).