Interlibrary Loan

We are a service of the University and State Library Saxony-Anhalt (ULB) and we offer specialized literature many libraries do not hold.

You can borrow books or essays from us via interlibrary loan. This is a service handled between libraries. 1581 public and academic libraries take part in this exchange system in Germany (as of December 2016).

Process

In order to request a book by interlibrary loan, you first have to contact a library in your area. Your local library will forward this order to the ULB. In general, the ordered media will be available after about 1.5 to 2 weeks.

You can also order individual essays from books or magazines that we hold. Usually we scan and send them via e-mail to your library which will provide you with a printout. (Due to copyright reasons, the scan cannot be distributed). This service takes only a few days.

Costs

Some libraries offer this service for free to their users. However, many charge a fee between 1.50 and 6.00 EUR per order – depending on the library.

Exceptions

Interlibrary loan is not possible for the following media:

  • E-Books
  • Audio and video materials (possible in some cases, please ask us)
  • Single sheet collections (copies of individual articles possible)
  • Older literature for reasons of preservation
  • Journal volumes of recent date
  • Large format newspaper volumes
  • Oversized works

Alternatives

Subito

You can obtain copies of articles from books and journals faster, but at a  higher cost, via the Subito document delivery service.

Digitisation Request

You can request titles to be digitized if their copyright has expired. This is an alternative for accessing older literature that cannot be borrowed for reasons of preservation.

Digital Collections

Our open access repository MENAdoc offers over 15,000 documents. These works are available at any time and can be searched in full text.

With our FID licenses, we provide access to electronic products such as databases, e-books and e-journals in Germany.