Interlibrary loans

Accessing articles provided by The British Library electronic delivery service

The Interlibrary Loan service is a way of obtaining material that is not held by Brunel University London and is needed for your research and study. To request material complete the interlibrary loans form, which will be sent through to the Library team.

Journal articles and photocopies can be sent to your email address via Secure Electronic Delivery, or can be picked up from the Library Help Desk. Books and other material have to be collected from the Library.

We are not able to guarantee a time frame for when items will arrive, as it depends on the availability of the item at either the British Library or other supplier libraries. (Usually for items from the British Library, Physical items arrive within 10 days and Digital Articles and Chapters within 5 days).  

Please check the University Library’s resources before applying. You can check:

• The Library Catalogue;
• The Library Search research engine;
• The E-Journals A to Z;
• Our electronic resources;
• You can also check with the Help Desk or your Academic Liaison Librarian about the best research methods and information sources.

 Costs effective from 1 August 2023

After a review of the interlibrary loans service, the library is introducing free interlibrary loans for all current staff and students. There are however limits to the amount of successful requests you can make per year.

Please see table below for limits and extra charges:

The year runs from 1 August – 31 July and the allocations cannot be carried over into the following year.

If you wish to renew an item please contact the interlibrary loans team before the item is due.  The renewal is at the discretion of the lending library and may not be successful.  Once the annual limit has been reached or you wish to request personal items the following charges will apply.

• * Please note we are unable to clarify which price the electronic delivery will be until it has been supplied
• ** Please note that costs for a lost or damaged interlibrary loan will be passed on to the user.
• For UK theses, please refer to the British Library EThOS service

If you have any queries relating to the costs, please contact the Interlibrary Loans team.