Interlibrary loans

Current students and staff of London Metropolitan University who:

• Are registered with the libraries
• Do not have large outstanding charges
• Students at partner institutions and Alumni borrowing members can request articles only.

Request restrictions

All requests are checked and approved before being submitted to the British Library.  Restrictions apply for the following types of requests:

• You are an undergraduate student and the item is for a student project, patent or standard.
• You have previously requested the same item.

To order an interlibrary loan first check the online library catalogue to make sure that the item you want is not available in this University. If it is not listed, then:

• Click on the interlibrary loans option and choose your preferred format
• Fill in the online form with as much of the requested information as possible
• Enter your IT account username and password and click submit
• For book requests, please ensure availability for collection in person at the time of the request

• You may request a journal article or a chapter from a book. Whole journal issues and complete books cannot be delivered electronically
• The charge will be confirmed in an email from the interlibrary loans team before the request is sent to the supplying library
• You will receive an email containing a link to your document
• The link will remain active for 30 days from the date of the original email from the supplying library
• You will be charged irrespective of whether you access the document or not

Interlibrary loans incur the following order charges.

On arrival you will be charged for the item irrespective of whether you collect/access the item or not.

• £7.00 for electronic delivery of a journal article or book chapter from a digital source
• £12.00 for a photocopy of a journal article or book chapter, or electronic delivery of an article or chapter from a printed source
• £19 for a loan (books or journal issues) which includes return postage of item to the British Library
• £6.25 per renewal of a loan

Payment should not be made until your request has been processed. You will be contacted when your interlibrary loan is ready for collection, at which point payment can be made online via E-Shop.

Doctoral research students may request up to ten interlibrary loans, per academic year, without charge as we pay for them on your behalf. However, renewals and overdue costs will apply.

Academic staff and Postgraduate students may request up to ten digital articles or chapters per academic year until January 2025, paid for by the library. Please note requests for entire journals or books will be charged at the advertised rate.

• Minimum charge of £1.00 per item per day for the late return of books and theses.
• If unreturned within 5 days of the due date, you may be subject to a British Library invoice for a minimum of £214.30 which includes an admin charge.

Under a new scheme running until January 2025, Postgraduate students may request up to ten interlibrary loans paid for by the library.

The free requests can only be used for requesting digital scans of journal articles or book chapters. While the requests will be free of charge to you, because of the costs involved for the University, please only request material which is required for your research. Please note requests for entire journals or books will be charged at the advertised rate.

Doctoral research students may request up to ten interlibrary loans per academic year via the catalogue. There are additional fees for renewals and overdue loans which must be paid by the borrower. The British Library will invoice for the non-return or late return of books.

• Minimum charge of £1.00 per item per day for the late return of books and theses.
• If unreturned within 5 days of the due date, you may be subject to a British Library invoice for a minimum of £214.30 which includes an admin charge.

See the section called Ordering accessible copies from the British Library on our Accessibility support page.