Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Borrowing

The Law Library offers Interlibrary Loan services to current CU Boulder Law students, faculty, and staff to assist them in obtaining materials for their coursework, journal articles, and research projects.

Law students desiring to borrow items for personal purposes as well as public patrons should contact the Interlibrary Loan department at their local public library.

Other CU Boulder affiliates should contact the Interlibrary Loan department at Norlin.

CU Boulder Law Students, Faculty and Staff

The Law Library participates in several library cooperative ventures that allow us to borrow and lend materials with other libraries. This greatly expands the resources available to you.

Be sure to search our catalog and before ordering materials through ILL. We do not order via ILL any materials which are currently held by a library on the CU Boulder campus.

The following links and instructions should be used to submit ILL borrowing requests. Please note that new releases and current editions of legal casebooks are often difficult to obtain in a timely fashion. Whenever possible, we recommend requesting scans of articles, chapters or specific pages instead of requesting book loans. Scans often arrive much faster than loans and do not have due dates to worry about. If a scan would work for you, skip to FirstSearch below.  

FirstSearch

FirstSearch: a catalog containing the records of thousands of libraries across the United States and worldwide. You can use FirstSearch to locate and request books or articles from participating libraries and have them delivered to the Law Library. Fees associated with the use of this service will be covered by the Law Library up to $15.

To search for and order books or articles through FirstSearch:

  1. Always search for the book in our catalog before requesting the item via FirstSearch. If no match is found or none are available, then use FirstSearch to request the material. Please note that in order to use the FirstSearch database you will need to be on the university’s network or logged in to the CU VPN. Our Remote Access to Library Resources page has more information.
  2. Once you have located the item you wish to request in FirstSearch, click on the icon above “ILL” at the top left.
  3. Next, you must enter your first name, last name, and CU email address. You may also enter comments. Please use this field to indicate:
    1. If you need a scan of an article, chapter or specific pages, list the cite information here. Include author, article/chapter title, volume/date, and pagination if known.
    2. If a campus library owns the item you are requesting, but it is unavailable, list that.
    3. If you are ordering as a research assistant for a professor, list the professor’s name.
    4. If you ordering as part of a cite check or for a journal article, list the publication.
  4. Click on "Submit.” The next screen will confirm that your request was successfully received or alert you to an error.
When the item is received by the Law Library, a notice will be emailed to you. Books will be held at the Law Library Circulation Desk.

 

If you are having trouble locating an item or have other questions about Interlibrary Loan, contact a Reference Librarian at lawref@colorado.edu, or chat, or schedule an appointment

 
Revised 5/2023
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