Frequently asked questions

When the item you need is not held in any Imperial library or online.

If a book is located at another Imperial campus library or is on loan to another user, place a request in Library Search and the book will be delivered to your chosen library.

To obtain an article from a journal located at another Imperial campus library, use the Document Delivery link on Library Search to request a copy.

Academic staff, postgraduates and undergraduates of Imperial College London, and NHS staff from trusts which have links to Imperial may use the service.

• Journals and journal articles
• Books and book chapters
• Conference proceedings and conference papers
• E-book chapters
• Patents
• Reports
• Standards
• Theses

Warning: To comply with UK Copyright Law, you are allowed to request a copy of one article/chapter/conference paper from any one journal issue/book/conference proceedings.

• Access to e-books

If you need more than one article from the same journal issue, place a Document Delivery request for the entire issue. The issue will be requested from the British Library on loan.

If you need more than one paper from the same volume of a conference proceedings, place a Document Delivery request for the whole volume.

If you need several chapters from the same book, place a Document Delivery request for the whole book.

Yes. You can request items, which are needed for your course at Imperial Horizons programme.

If you require a copy of a work to use in a module you are teaching, please ASK the Library for copyright advice.

First, search for the item you require using Library Search.

If your item is not found, use the ORDER A BOOK OR ARTICLE tab in Library Search to place a Document Delivery request.

No. We do not charge for this service

See Theses 

Journal articles and conference papers from the British Library take approximately 3 working days and will normally be delivered by email.

Books and other loanable items from the British Library take approximately 5 working days.

Material borrowed from other libraries may take longer to obtain

You are able to check the status of your Document Delivery requests in your Library Account.

Sign in to your account in Library Search and select My Requests from the drop-down menu.

Your Document Delivery requests are marked as ILL.         

When you collect the item, the request will be displayed in your Loans section. The Item Policy will be shown as Inter-library loan.

Where possible articles will be sent to you by email.

For items requiring collection you will be notified by email. They will usually be available from the Abdus Salam Library Information Hub or your campus library issue desk for pick up during staffed desk hours.

Items received through Document Delivery can be returned to any Imperial College London campus library.

You can view articles emailed to you from the British Library for 3 years once the article is downloaded. You can only print them once.

Photocopies of articles are for you to keep.

You may borrow books from the British Library for 5 weeks.

Loan periods vary for items borrowed from other libraries. Some items are only for consultation in the Library. Such conditions are stipulated by the lending library and Imperial must abide by these conditions

Items received though Document Delivery can be recalled at any stage by the lending library. In the event that the item is recalled, a message will be sent to your Imperial email address to ask you to return it as soon as possible.

It may be possible to extend the loan of items borrowed from the British Library  for 5 weeks.

We can only renew books borrowed from other libraries at the discretion of the lending library and not far in advance of a due date.

You can renew your items 3 days before the due date shown inside the book by:

Using Your Library Account

• Sign in to Library Search with your Imperial username and password or NHS barcode and password
• After signing in, click on the Sign In icon again and select My Account
• View your Loans found on the left panel
• Items supplied by Document Delivery are marked as Inter-library loan
• Select the items you wish to renew by ticking the box by the title
• Choose the Renew Selected button
• The screen will update to show The renewal request was successfully submitted

Email

Email ill@imperial.ac.uk

The Document Delivery staff will request renewal from the lending library. This might take several days to get a new due date. Once the renewal is approved, your book will be renewed, and a confirmation message will be sent to your Imperial email address.

The Library will be charged for lost items, and may be charged for very overdue items. If you lose an item, or fail to return items on time, we will pass on the charges to you. The British Library currently fixes these charges between £92.75 and £185.50 + VAT (more will be charged if the item is more expensive to replace).

Replacement fees from other libraries vary.

If you know you have lost a book, received through Document Delivery, please let us know as soon as possible.

You can copy the following:

• One article from a single journal part
• One chapter or 5% (whichever is the greater) from a single monograph

Yes, if an item is held by another Imperial campus library we can send it to your home campus library.

To request a journal article use the ORDER A BOOK OR ARTICLE tab in Library Search. Select the Journal article form, fill in the article details but leave the ISSN field blank.

To request books and all other items place a request in Library Search and it will be delivered to your chosen library.

You will receive articles obtained from the British Library and Imperial campus libraries by email.

If we obtain an article from another library, they will provide a photocopy, which you will have to collect from your campus library.

No. We can only deliver to your Imperial College London or NHS email address.

If you request material which is protected by copyright law we would normally have to pay the copyright owner a fee for reproducing their work. However, you will be protected from paying this fee by Library Privilege if you require a copy for non-commercial research or private study. To use Library Privilege you must sign the copyright declaration when placing your Document Delivery request.

This copyright declaration is a part of the university’s rules and regulations.

If you require a copy of material for commercial research please contact Document Delivery by email ill@imperial.ac.uk.

Commercial research should be considered as any research that is directly or indirectly income-generating. You will normally be required to pay a copyright fee, cost of creating and supplying the copy.

If a journal is held at another Imperial College London campus library, you will receive a message from this campus shared mailbox, ending with @imperial.ac.uk.

• An unencrypted PDF file will be attached to the message.
• You will be reminded about copyright restrictions you have agreed to when requesting this item.

If a document is supplied by the British Library, you will receive an email from noreply@bldss.bl.uk

You will be provided with a link to the document and instructions on how to download it.

• The link to the document will be active for 30 days and we recommend you download and save it immediately
• The document is unencrypted, and you can download it on any device, including a memory stick
• You can open the PDF file using your browser PDF viewer
• Remember that you have signed the Copyright Declaration and must follow the restrictions applied

Most digital items will be supplied to you by another library. You will receive a message from 44IMP_INST-bounce-reply@eu.alma.exlibrisgroup.com on behalf of Library Notices <ill@imperial.ac.uk>

• You will be provided with a link to the document and instructions on how to download it
• The link to the document will be active for 30 days
• You will only have two attempts to download your item
• We recommend you download and save it on the first viewing

You will be reminded that you have signed a Copyright Declaration and must follow the restrictions applied.