Frequently asked questions

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

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

If a book is located at another Imperial College 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 College campus library, use the Document Delivery link on Library Search to request a copy.

• 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.

We recommend to search the Library resources first.

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

No. We do not charge for this service

UK theses

UK theses are available online via the British Library EThOS service. To obtain a copy of a thesis:

• first register for the service
• if a thesis has already been digitised it will be available for immediate download
• if a thesis has not been digitised and there is no charge, place your order to digitise it. You will receive a notification from EThOS by email when the thesis is ready to download.
• if a thesis has not been digitised and there is a charge, make a request through the Document Delivery Service via Library Search. You will either receive a copy on loan or, if this is not possible, the Library will order a digital copy and notify you when it is available for download - this will take 4-5 weeks.

Overseas theses

Most overseas theses are now available online via Library Search. If the thesis you are interested in is not available request it using Document Delivery.

Imperial College London PhD theses

Information for Imperial students and staff

• Check if an electronic copy of the thesis is available in the Spiral repository. If the thesis has been digitised you can access and download it.
• If the thesis has not been digitised, you can visit the Central Library to consult it - complete a Thesis request form prior to your visit.
• You can also place a Document Delivery request for an electronic copy of the thesis using “ORDER A BOOK OR ARTICLE” tab in Library Search. The time scale for digitisation is 4 weeks.

Information for external users and alumni

• Most of the electronic copies of Imperial PhD theses are available on open access in the Spiral repository. Some theses are closed access, for copyright reasons, and are unavailable to external users.
• You can visit the Central Library to consult any print theses, including theses unavailable in Spiral - complete a Thesis request form and, if you do not have a current membership card, complete the online library membership application form prior to your visit.
• If you are unable to visit the library or wish to receive an electronic copy of a thesis, please contact the Document Delivery Service by email at ill@imperial.ac.uk. Full details will be given upon application.

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.

Log in to your account and select My Requests option.

Your Document Delivery requests are marked as ILL, following a current request’s status at the second column.         

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 Central Library Information Hub or your campus library issue desk.

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 College 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

• If you are not signed in to  Your Library Account go to Library Search
  - Click the Sign In icon in the top right corner
  - Select your College profile and Sign in with your College 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, showing all of the items you have borrowed
• Items supplied by Document Delivery are marked as  “Inter-library loan” at the Item Policy tab.
• 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 College 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 have to 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 College London campus library we can send it to your home campus library.

• To request a journal article use the “ORDER A BOOK OR ARTICLE” tab on Library Search.  Select the “Journal article” form, fill the article details in but leave the ISSN box 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 College 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. In order to use Library Privilege you must sign the copyright declaration form when placing your Document Delivery request.

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

Copyright declaration

Please supply me with a copy of this article or part of this published work.

I declare that:

• I have not previously been supplied with a copy of the same material by any library or archive
• I have not previously been supplied with a copy of material from the same journal issue / book /conference proceedings by any library.
• I require the copy for the purposes of a non-commercial research or private study, and that I will use it only for those purposes
• I will not supply the copy to any other person and I will retain only a single copy of the work
• To the best of my knowledge no other person with whom I work or study has made, or intends to make, at or about the same time as this request, a request for substantially the same material for substantially the same purpose

I understand that if the declaration is false in a material particular, the copy supplied to me by you will be an infringing copy and that I shall be liable.

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.