Q. Can I Interlibrary Loan (ILL) a textbook?

It depends! If it is a textbook we already own or have access to, it is against our policy to process those requests because we already have the material. 

However, if we are not granting access to the material, we can attempt to request. Also, if the material has been deemed as lost or missing, we can allow the request to go through. To see if we already grant access to the material, we suggest using the Discovery Catalog Search to search via ISBN for the specific edition you need:

• Find the book using the catalog (on the library homepage).
• Select the result/title and then select the "Interlibrary Loan" button to start the request if we do not grant access. If you are not signed in, you will be prompted to log in using your  MyTCC credentials. Then, you will see a form that is pre-filled from the record you selected. You may need to add more information about the material if you know it. If not, just fill out to the best of your abilities. Choose your pickup location and select "submit."
• (!) If it is not giving you the option to ILL, please use the blank form found here on this page and fill it in with as much information available about the item.

The service is free for students, faculty, and staff.

Please keep this in mind:

• Textbooks are sometimes tricky to get through this service because many libraries need textbooks for their own students (they are held on reserve for their own students), but we can try.
• We cannot get online versions of textbooks usually, due to copyright and licensing restrictions. Learn more that here.
• It is unlikely you'll get to keep the book for the entire semester. TCC library does not control due dates from other libraries when we borrow their materials.
• It may be a better idea to ILL a chapter you need from the book until you can get a print copy (in other words, place a request for the chapter you are needing immediately while you wait for the print to be supplied via ILL). Keep in mind that CONTU guidelines through our ILL system will only allow for limited portions to be copied up to 5 times from some titles in a single year for the entire institution. See the link below for more information.