Using ILL

Current Drake students, faculty, and staff can easily place ILL requests by accessing their ILL account directly, or by selecting the “Request from Interlibrary Loan” link when they encounter material Drake does not own.

Your ILL account is divided into two sections: Profile and Requests. Most of your attention will be spent in Requests, but we do need to mention your Profile.

ILL Account Profile

Here you can change your notification preferences. Your contact information is transferred directly from your Drake Banner account, so although the interface allows you to make changes to your email address, we ask that you do not do so.

If you would like to receive ILL notifications via text message:

1. Enter your 10-digit mobile number in the Phone Number field. The required country code is provided automatically.
2. Click Save Contact Information.
3. Once saved, toggle on “Send library account updates by text message” (as pictured above)
4. Email notifications remain on by default, so if you *only* want to receive text notifications, toggle off “Send library account updates by email” (as pictured above).
5. Click Save Contact Information again.

You may opt out of text notifications at any time by reversing the above procedure, or by responding with the opt out message provided in the text message.

ILL Requests

From the Requests tab, you can view your ILL checkouts, view active and closed requests, create new requests, recreate previous requests, or renew and cancel requests. Requests are sorted by Submitted Date with the most recently submitted requests appearing first. Click on the linked text in the Submitted Date column to view Request Details.

Request Details

1. Information about the requested item.
2. Information about your request, including the Request ID (formerly called Transaction Number).
3. Any notes provided, such as the “Need Before” date, notes you provided in the request form, and notes entered by library ILL staff.
4. A record of all notifications sent regarding this request.
5. You can opt to cancel a request as long as it has a status of “Not ready for pickup.” Requests that are in transit to or have been received by Cowles Library cannot by canceled here.

Status

The Status column of the Requests tab lets you know what’s happening with your request. The statuses you’ll find here are listed below; those in orange apply only to books and other physical items, as articles will always be delivered electronically.

• Submitted – your request has been successfully submitted and is being reviewed by ILL staff.
• Unable to Provide – the library was unable to borrow the requested item, or unable to provide it in the requested time frame.
• Canceled – the request was canceled by you or by library staff.
• In Transit – the requested item is on its way from the lending library to Cowles Library.
• Due 2024-07-19 – the requested item has been received by Cowles Library and you will have received a “ready for pickup” notification. You will need to return the item to Cowles Library by the 2024-07-19 indicated.
• Recalled – the lending library has recalled the item and it is due back immediately.
• Complete – the requested item has been returned to the lending library.
• Available to view – the article has been supplied by a lending library, and a link to the PDF version is provided.

Creating New Requests

Click Create Requests to begin a new request. The request form defaults to Article, but you can select the Book or Other tabs as needed. The more information you provide, the better chance we have of filling the request, but you must fill out the required fields marked with an asterisk.

In the “About my request” section, the “Need before” date lets ILL staff know how quickly you’d like the item, but keep in mind that we may not be able to fill requests with very short turnaround times (i.e. 1 or 2 days).

You must submit a separate request for each item.

Renewing Requests

For books and other physical items, a Renew Request option will appear while the item’s status is Due 2024-07-19. You may request a renewal, but please keep in mind that Cowles Library has no control over a lending library’s renewal policies and there is no guarantee that the lending library will allow a renewal.

Once the item’s due date has passed and the request appears as Overdue, you will not be able to request a renewal from your ILL account. Contact cowles-ill@drake.edu to submit a renewal request.

Completed/Closed Requests

Requests that have been completed or closed will remain in your request list for 36 months. If you need to request an item again, the Request Again button allows you to do so.

Because article PDFs are yours to keep, we encourage you to store them on your device until you no longer need them, rather than re-requesting them from ILL.