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Interlibrary Loans: Requesting Interlibrary Loans

Information on the Interlibrary Loans service offered through Bishop's University Library Learning Commons

Requesting Items from other libraries

Interlibrary Loan

Requesting print items not available from other Quebec university libraries
You can use the Interlibrary Loan service to request copies of articles or book chapters not available at Bishop’s, and for print items such as books or theses that are not available from any university library within Quebec. When you refine your search results with the “Libraries Worldwide” facet on the left-hand part of the screen, you will see your results expand. Interested in a title? If you are already signed into your library account, when you click on "Request via Interlibrary Loan" you will be taken directly to a page where you can submit your request. If you have not signed into your library account, when you click on the request button you will be prompted to sign in before you can place the request.
If you are requesting an item from outside of Quebec, the ILL request button will look like this:

When your ILL request is ready, you will either receive a link to the source in your email or you will be able to pick up your ILL at the Library Services Desk.

Network Loan

Requesting print items from university libraries within Quebec
Network Loan is a new direct borrowing service that allows the Bishop's University and Champlain College community to easily request print materials such as books, theses and other materials from other university libraries in Quebec (BCI). In Sofia, if you have expanded your search from Bishop's University to Bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (this search limiter can be found on the left-hand side of your Sofia results page), you will now be able to see what is available at other libraries in Quebec.
If you see a Request/Hold button, like the one you see below, beside an item you are interested in borrowing, simply click on it.
Request/Hold Button in Sofia
If you are already signed into your library account, you will be taken directly to a page where you can submit your request. If you have not signed into the library account, you will be prompted to sign in before you can place a request.
Network Loan is a free service for Bishop's and Champlain students, faculty, and staff.
You can create an ILL request without searching for the item in Sofia. So, if you cannot find what you are looking for in Sofia, you can follow these steps to create a request.
  1. Sign into your Library Account.
  2. Once signed in, on the right-hand side of the screen, you will see your name along with a drop-down menu.
  3. In the drop-down menu, select "My ILL Requests" or "Requests" depending on what version of the Sofia screen you are looking at.
  4. Once you have accessed your Requests page, you will see a Create Request button. After clicking on it, you will be able to fill out a form with the information of the item you want to request. You will then be able to submit your ILL request.
  5. Make sure you select the right request form for the type of item you are requesting. Choose from Article or Book Chapter, Book, or Other.
Please note, that you will need to create a new request form for each item you want through ILL.

What is Sofia?

In our partnership with the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) and all other academic libraries in Quebec, Bishop's University Library Learning Commons brings you our new Discovery tool, SofiaSofia is a Shared Services Platform that allows for a unified catalogue throughout all Quebec's academic libraries.  Not only can you use Sofia to search for resources here at Bishop's but you can easily access more than 20 million resources from the other 17 partnered libraries.