Document Delivery Policies and Procedures: Tufts University Hirsh Health Sciences Library

The following policies and procedures apply to document delivery services available for members of the Tufts Boston campus community, including all students, faculty and staff at Tufts University's Health Sciences Campus, as well as clinical faculty at Tufts-affiliated hospitals. Please see Request Articles & Books for information about other services we provide.

What is Document Delivery
Document Delivery, which includes Interlibrary Loan (ILL), is a library service used to obtain documents (journal articles, book chapters, books, theses, and audiovisuals) for HHSL library users from the Tufts collection and beyond. Its cornerstone is a cooperative program among libraries that share their collections. Tufts University shares resources with libraries that are members of the Boston Library Consortium (BLC); the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), which includes the National Library of Medicine; and an international network of nearly 4,000 libraries.

Requesting Documents
Before ordering a document, please check the Tufts Library Catalog to make sure the library does not own the document in either print or electronic format. Students may not order documents owned by the Hirsh Health Sciences Library (HHSL), unless under special circumstances - see, Library Services for Special Needs.
Documents may be ordered electronically via:

Number of Requests
There is no limit as to the number of requests per user however, in cases where a large number of requests have been submitted by one person, a minimum of 5 requests per day will be processed until all have been completed.

Turn around Time
Allow five to ten working days for items that are not rush requests. Articles copied from the HHSL collection are available within five business days.

Rush processing is only available for requests through ILLiad (not the BLC Virtual Catalog or Loansome Doc). One-day rush is only available for non-returnable items, such as journal articles and book chapters, which are sent electronically. Variable delivery charges for one and three-day rush requests may apply in addition to the standard rush fees.

Notification & Pick Up
When items arrive, users will be notified by email. Articles and chapter excerpts are sent electronically and can be viewed from your ILLiad account by clicking on "Electronically Received Articles" under "View Requests." All other items are available for pick up at the HHSL InfoCirc Desk on the fifth floor of the library.

Returning Items Borrowed from Another Library
Articles and book excerpts are sent electronically and are available for viewing for 21 days. Please return all other items by the due date. Due dates for returning materials are set by the lending library and are typically 30 days. Items borrowed through ILLiad from Tisch Library have a 45-day loan period with no renewals. Renewals for other ILLiad-requested items are made on a case by case basis. All BLC Virtual Catalog items have a 28-day loan period with no renewals.

Service Charges
See Document Delivery Service Charges for a complete listing of fees. Fees listed below apply to Tufts and Tufts Medical Center staff and faculty using ILLiad or Loansome Doc. Payments can be made via personal (US) check or by using an appropriate Tufts or Tufts Medical Center account number. Through ILLiad, students at the Health Sciences Campus may order 20 articles free of charge per academic year after which the following charges apply. By supplying their UTLN and associated password, students agree to have the charge entered on their library account. All BLC Virtual Catalog requests are free of charge for all users.

Payment is required with the following exceptions:

Items supplied by other Tufts libraries or through the BLC Virtual Catalog.
Books that are missing from the HHSL collection.
Articles from missing issues of Tufts-subscribed journals.
Articles or chapters which have been removed from bound volumes.
Special needs circumstances discussed with interlibrary loan staff.

N.B.: Charges do apply if these items are requested as rush.

Document Delivery Contact Information
Please contact the HHSL InfoCirc Desk, 617.636.6705; hhsl@tufts.edu or Document Delivery 617.636.3787 (phone); 617.636.4039 (fax); hhsl-docdel@tufts.edu for more help.

Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions
Under certain conditions specified in the copyright law of the United States (U.S. Code, Title 17), libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later users, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.