British Library continues to rebuild its services following October 2023's cyber-attack. Current services include: a temporary catalogue, and loans from open stacks and storage areas in the Lending Division (in Boston Spa, Yorkshire). They are working to restore access to the EThOS (thesis) service in their next phase of restoration work. Access to the Reading Rooms is improving. We continue to experience problems obtaining international material which is normally supplied via British Library. A list of the services currently available at British Library is available online here. The ILL team will be happy to answer any queries regarding individual requests. Contact us at interlibrary.loans@durham.ac.uk .
You can get in touch through our live chat service or by email, and search our FAQs for answers to your questions.
The Inter-Library Loans (ILL) service gives staff and students of Durham University access to material not currently held by the Library. Use the links to the ILL request form whenever you find them in Discover, or ConneXions and the form will be automatically populated with the book or article details. A blank ILL request form is also available at the top of each page in Discover, or you can use this link to the Inter-Library Loan form to make a request.
Use the form to tell us what you want: a book, thesis, book chapter, journal article (or whole journal issue) and we will email you when the item is available.
Articles will be delivered to your Durham University email address, or to an alternate email address if you supply one on the request form.
Whole books borrowed from another library via ILL will need to be collected from the Bill Bryson Library during Library Service hours which are shorter then the library opening hours. Check the current Help & Information desk service hours here. Some books will be confined to the library (at the request of the lending library) and these can be consulted on a daily basis. Postal Loans will not be possible. If you need a delivery option which is not available, then contact us to discuss alternative solutions.
Check our catalogue to confirm that the book or journal is not available in our library.
Check the internet. A quick internet search can find review papers, open access journals, government publications and old books, which are out of copyright.
If you want a thesis many are available for immediate download. Check EThOS for UK theses and ProQuest Digital Dissertations for international theses.
General Data Protection: Most inter-library loans are processed without supplying your personal information to parties outside of Durham, however your email address may be shared with The British Library to enable them to deliver scanned articles directly to you. No personal data is shared for the purposes of supplying loans. Here is a link to British Library's Privacy Policy statement.
Inter-Library Loans
Durham University Library
Stockton Road
DURHAM
DH1 3LY
United Kingdom
Email: interlibrary.loans@durham.ac.uk