Purpose
Interlibrary loan is a service provided to assist patrons in locating and obtaining materials beyond those physically present in the RSU Library. It makes many more resources accessible than could normally be housed in one library. A wide variety of materials may be borrowed from other libraries. Photocopies of non-circulating items (usually articles from journals) can also be acquired for individual use.
Who May Use Interlibrary Loan
The students, faculty, and staff of Rogers State University, employees of affiliated organizations whose offices are on campus, and people who have been issued a Community Borrowers or Alumni library card, may use this service.
Materials Available
Items owned by other libraries, which they will lend, and copies, such as articles in periodicals, which the 'lending' library will not normally provide as the original, non-circulating item. Items owned by other libraries and listed in the OCLC national online catalog are the easiest for us to request. A person may request other materials that have been identified through other means, as a visit or phone call to the potential lending library, or a published bibliography stating a library location.
Materials Not Available
The following types of materials cannot normally be requested: items placed on reserve in a library, as for use in curriculum courses; bulky or fragile materials; reference books; rare or valuable material such as manuscripts; or possibly new items. All interlibrary loan agreements, to which this library adheres, grant the lending libraries the right to decline to loan an item.
Supplying Adequate Information
Adequate requestor identification must be provided as guided by the forms, so the requestor assumes responsibility for the item loaned and so the requestor can be notified when the item arrives. For speedy service, the item must be identified by accurate and complete bibliographic citation.
Number of Requests
Request forms are processed, for the most part, in the order submitted. If one person places more than ten requests at the same time, the additional requests may need to be delayed to enable staff to serve other library users. If students, faculty or staff attach a long bibliographic list to a request form, the items requested (including copies of articles) need to be prioritized.
Time
The time it takes for an interlibrary loan to arrive depends on how soon we can input the request and how soon the lending library can search for the material and either send it to us or forward the request to another library. Patrons should allow up to 14 days for materials to arrive, though often articles shipped by email will arrive much sooner.
Cost
There are no charges involved in interlibrary loan, except for replacement costs established by the lending library for loss or damage, and overdue charges that may result from materials held beyond the due date.
Notification
When the item arrives at Stratton Taylor Library, the requestor is notified by telephone, e-mail, or, if that is not possible, by mail. Faculty and staff may request that interlibrary loan items be delivered to their office. Otherwise, books and items will be held at the front desk in the library. Photocopies of articles will be sent by campus mail for faculty and staff unless a person asks to also have articles kept at the front desk of the library.
Loan Period
The loan period is determined by the lending library. Books are due back in the Stratton Taylor Library by a date that gives us time to return them by the lending library's due date. A renewal should be requested a few days before the due date, because this library can only submit a renewal request with the lending library for the borrower. The lending library always has the option to refuse.
Procedures for Materials Obtained from other Libraries
Books, audiovisual media, and photocopies of articles are all placed on a shelf in the closet behind the front desk of the library. Staff will get them for patrons.
After receipt of a borrowed item the patron is contacted. Note the date of contact.
The conditions of this service are set by the National Interlibrary Loan Code, 1980 (adopted by the American Library Association; the AMIGOS Interlibrary Loan Code, the Oklahoma Library Technology Network (OLTN) interlibrary Loan Code (established 1993), local agreements and the regulations of individual lending libraries.
U.S. Copyright Law
All libraries are subject to U. S. Copyright Law. The following code of copyright is present on this library's printed request forms and also on the online request forms that can be accessed from the library web-page:
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use" that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.
Copyright Law Specifically for Journals (or other periodicals)
No more than 5 (five) articles from the same journal may be ordered within each year. This does not include those with dates that are older than 5 years (for example, in 2018, the law would apply to articles dated from 2014) and does not apply to articles from journals to which the RSU Library subscribes. The year for copyright observance is from January 1 - December 31.