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Library Policies

Interlibrary Loan

Southern Wesleyan University

Interlibrary Loan Policies

Interlibrary loan service is available to SWU students, faculty, and staff for research materials SWU does not own.  The library reserves the right to enforce a $3 fee for the request of physical items (books, DVDs, etc.)  Interlibrary loan service may be denied to any individual with outstanding fines.  The patron is responsible for any charges enforced by the lending library and will be notified of any charges before the request is processed.

Interlibrary loan requests are generally processed within 24 hours of receipt.  Requests submitted on weekends or during university holidays will be processed the next business day. 


Requests for textbooks will not be processed under any circumstances.

Allow 7 to 10 days for physical items to arrive.  Items being mailed to SWU online students require an additional 2 to 3 days handling time.  We cannot guarantee that items requested less than 7 days before they are needed will arrive in time.  Articles typically arrive within 1-3 days and will be delivered to the email address provided on the request form.  For in-state online students, items requested through PASCAL Delivers must be picked up from a participating PASCAL library.  If you do not live near the SWU campus, you may have the books delivered to the academic library closest to you.  Books should be returned via the same library used for pick up. 

Items should be returned to Rickman Library by the date.  The library reserves the right to enforce a $1 per day late fee for interlibrary loan / PASCAL items.

Renewal requests for ILL items must be submitted at least 2 business days in advance of the original due date.  A renewal may only be requested once per item and is dependent upon approval by the lending library.  If a renewal is denied, the item must be returned by the original due date.  Items for which a renewal was denied may be reordered at the patron’s request.  PASCAL books may be renewed once for a period of 6 weeks.


Patrons with overdue interlibrary loan materials will not have any additional materials ordered/given to them until the overdue ILL materials have been returned. 

  • When an ILL item becomes two weeks overdue, the patron will be contacted by email with a fine amount and a request to return the item.
  • After an item becomes one month overdue, it will be considered lost and the patron will be charged the late fee plus the replacement fee provided by the lending library.  The patron will be notified of this charge by letter.

The requestor is responsible for returning materials to the Rickman Library on time and in the same condition in which they were received.

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) provides protection and access for copyrighted materials.  The Rickman Library complies with all copyright laws and guidelines and urges compliance on the part of all library users.

Why Can't I Request My Textbooks Through ILL?

The library does not borrow required textbooks via ILL. Why?

  • ILL services are intended to assist students and faculty with the short term borrowing of supplementary materials that they might need for class related research, but which are not owned by Rickman library.
  • Purchasing textbooks is part of usual college expenses, along with paying tuition and dorm/rental expenses, buying school supplies, a parking pass, and a meal plan.
  • Very few libraries have the newest editions as soon as they are printed and required for use by professors for classes.
  • Of those libraries that do purchase textbooks, the textbook collection is usually reserved for their campus-use only and are not loaned to other libraries.
  • Loaned books usually take one to two weeks to arrive, so students are already far behind in their class work and reading by the time they arrive.
  • Students only get to keep a textbook borrowed through ILL for about three weeks.  Because of this, many of our students have given in to the temptation to keep borrowed materials after their due date in order to have them for classes. This creates a very poor testimony for us in the community of libraries with whom we share materials.

                Adapted from https://www.liberty.edu/informationservices/ilrc/library/index.cfm?PID=1860