Inter library loans

Forms are available at the Help Zone or download and print the Word document.
Please note that each supplied item costs the university a minimum of £17.80 (plus £5.45 per renewal).

• Students may hand in six requests at any one time
• Each form must be countersigned by your supervisor
• Article and book chapter requests must have the copyright signed.

Placing requests if you are a distance learner or away on placement  - we will accept scanned completed request forms providing you e-mail them first to your dissertation supervisor for authorisation. Please ask them to forward the form to [email protected] with a short note of agreement.

For collection - books must be collected from the library at either Talbot or Lansdowne campus. Articles can be posted, please indicate this on the form and include the delivery address.

BU ILL Request forms are available for submission electronically for all staff and PG Researchers.

Please note that each supplied item costs the University a minimum of £17.80 (plus £5.45 per renewal).

• Large numbers of inter library loan requests may need further approval from your Faculty Library Team. This will be managed on a case by case basis.
• Requests can only be submitted by the person who is to receive them as per copyright declaration
• You may be able to receive some articles and book chapters from the British Library as PDFs using the delivery system which will enable you to view anywhere, on any machine, including mobile devices.  Just complete the one off registration process and then place orders using the BU ILL request form above.

You will receive an email alerting you to items awaiting collection or to any queries relating to your requests.

All emails are sent to your BU email address.

In case of email failure, you should also check the progress of your inter library loans by going to My Account in mySearch. 

To enquire about any of your inter library loan requests, please contact Inter Library Loans staff at [email protected]

Books on loan from The British Library have a five-week loan period, books on loan from other locations may vary. You may apply for renewal if the item is not required by anyone else. Photocopies of journal articles or conference papers may be kept indefinitely.

Before returning any item to the library, make sure that you keep a record of the author, title, publisher and date of publication for your bibliography.

In line with The British Library’s policy, individuals who lose, damage or fail to return the loaned book will be held responsible for the cost of replacement.

We will write to you asking you the reason you have not returned it. If we receive no reply within 21 days and the item is still not returned, your account will be charged. If the item was expensive, the full price of replacement will be charged rather than a standard price.

If you have paid the Lost Items charge but return the item within six weeks, we will make a refund of the full amount minus the administration element. Once an invoice is raised, it will only be cancelled in exceptional circumstances.

Many loaned items are irreplaceable; we therefore want all Lost Items returned if they are found. The Lost Items charge is a penalty for the inconvenience and loss of revenue resulting from losing an item of stock; you are not buying the Lost Item. The British Library reserve the right to remove any customers loan facility if they feel that the integrity of their collection is endangered.