Interlibrary Loans FAQ

The law library provides free interlibrary loan service to the Texas A&M School of Law faculty, staff, and students. The library will place interlibrary loan requests for items needed for law school-related research or business which are not accessible through our print, microfiche, or electronic resources. Interlibrary loan requests will not be placed for items wanted strictly on the basis of preference of format. However, an exception will be made for students or faculty compiling a source book for an article that has been accepted for publication.  

The individual requesting an item is solely responsible for all penalties, including replacement costs, set by the lending library for late returns and lost items.

Law school staff and students must submit interlibrary loan requests through the Interlibrary Loan Request Form located on the law library's website. To access the form, click on this link. The form gives you the option to request articles or books. You will be asked to fill in the citation information for the article or book. Please include all of the required information and any other information you may have. The more information you provide, the quicker we can process your request. If you have any questions about interlibrary loan requests, please stop by the Library Reference Desk or give us a call at 817-212-3805.

• Go to the Law Library Interlibrary Loan Form.
• Under "Would you like to borrow a physical copy of a book or receive a scan of a section?" click the "Physical Copy" option.

• Fill out the requestor information.
• Go to the "Book Request" section and enter all of the information you have about the book.

• If you need to add extra information, use the "Additional Information or Comments" section at the end of the form. After filling in your information, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page.

• Go to the Law Library Interlibrary Loan Form.
• Under "Would you like to borrow a physical copy of a book or receive a scan of a section?" click the "scan of a section" option.

• Fill out the requestor information.
• If you need pages from a book, go to the "Book Request" section and enter all of the information you have about the book. Be sure to enter the page numbers or the chapters that you want in the "Pages" field; otherwise we will request a physical copy of the entire book.

• If you need an article, go to the "Journal Articles" section and enter all of the information you have about the article. Please provide as much information as possible.

• If you need to add extra information, use the "Additional Information or Comments" section at the end of the form. After filling in your information, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page.

The interlibrary loan form is sufficient for most requests. If you have a request for an item that doesn't quite fit the form, or if you need to provide more detail than the form allows, please call the Library Reference Desk at 817-212-3805 or email the interlibrary loan librarian at cburress@law.tamu.edu.

Books and articles can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to arrive, depending on how many libraries own copies and are willing to lend them to us. The interlibrary loan librarian will email you when your item is available. There is currently no way for patrons to check on the status of their requests online.

Books can be picked up at the circulation desk any time the library is open. Articles and scans of book chapters will be emailed directly to you.

Books should be returned to the library circulation desk or the library reference desk. Scanned or copied items don't need to be returned. Do NOT return books to any other library, even the library that originally sent the book - this will mess up the process and might result in you being charged overdue fees or replacement costs.

When an interlibrary loan book is overdue, you will receive an overdue notice via email. If you still need the book, just let the interlibrary loan librarian know and she will try to renew the book for you. Some books cannot be renewed - if this is the case, the librarian will tell you, and you must return the book immediately. If you still need it, we can try to request another copy for you from a different library. If you do not return the book, you may be charged for overdue fines and/or replacement costs.

When time permits, the law library will lend materials to a "librarian" (a member of a professional library association) at a requesting institution. To inquire about borrowing materials from our collection, please contact Cara Sitton at 817-212-3817 or send a request through the OCLC WorldShare interface.