NSU's distance education students have access to the resources found in Williams Library as well as materials located in hundreds of other libraries. Through cooperative agreements with libraries throughout the country, our distance students can access a wealth of information resources and have them delivered to their homes via U.S. Mail. Read on to learn more about how to request books and other circulating materials and how you can obtain photocopies of journal articles.

Requesting Books and Other Circulating Materials

Making the Request
Once you have found the item(s) you wish to request, complete an online interlibrary loan form for each book or other circulating item. Circulating items include books, video and audio tapes, and more. Information required in the interlibrary loan form includes your full name and NSU ID number (the 14-digit barcode that appears on the back of your NSU ID/library card), as well as identifying information about the item you are requesting. Enter the information required with care. Errors in your entry may delay the processing of your request.

IMPORTANT! When you complete the interlibrary loan request, enter "Distance student - please ship to home address" in the Notes field.

Delivery
The book or other circulating material is sent via U.S. Mail to the address you provided in your NSU ID/library card application.

Timing
Most requests are processed within two working days after we receive them. If the item you request is not held in Williams Library, we must borrow that item from another library. Sometimes this can take up to two or three weeks. If you are in a hurry to receive your item, you may wish to place an interlibrary loan request through your local public library. This will allow you to receive the requested item more quickly by eliminating the delivery time from Williams Library to your home. If we are unable to provide an item by the "date needed by" that you specified in your interlibrary loan request, we will notify you. If you do not specify a "date needed by" in your request, we will suspend efforts to obtain the item 30 days after we receive your request.

Cost
The requested item will be obtained and shipped to you at no cost. However, you are responsible for paying the cost of returning the item to Williams Library.

Returning Materials
Books and other circulating items you receive through interlibrary loan must be received in Williams Library on or before the due date to avoid overdue fines. The postmark date will be used as the return date for all overdue items returned via regular mail. We suggest that you retain the mailing package used to send the item(s) and use it to return the items. A return mailing label is included with each item that states "Library Rate." Your post office will know how to assign postage for this special rate. You may wish to consider insuring the items when returning them.

Liability
You are responsible for loss, damage, or overdue fines associated with the materials you borrow through interlibrary loan.

Limitations
This document delivery service is available to distance students while they are enrolled in an NSU distance education course. We reserve the right to refuse to process requests for you if you have overdue library materials or unpaid library fines.

Requesting Copies of Journal Articles

NSU students have access to a wide variety of online databases through which full-text journal articles can be obtained. When you need a journal article, your first step should be to review the Online Databases page and conduct a variety of searches using the databases you find listed there. After you have determined that the article you need is not available in full text through one of NSU's online databases, proceed with requesting a photocopy of the article using the procedure that follows.

Making the Request
Once you have found the article(s) you wish to request, complete an online interlibrary loan form for each article. Information required in the form includes your full name and NSU ID number (the 14-digit barcode that appears on the back of your NSU ID/library card), as well as identifying information about the publication in which the article appears. Be careful to enter information about the article exactly as it appears in the citation. Errors in your entry may delay the processing of your request.

IMPORTANT! When you complete the interlibrary loan request, enter "Distance student - please ship to home address" in the Notes field.

Delivery
Photocopies of journal articles are sent via U.S. Mail to the address you provided in your NSU ID/library card application.

Timing
Most requests are processed within two working days after we receive them. If the item you request is not held in Williams Library, we must borrow that item from another library. Sometimes this can take up to two or three weeks. If you are in a hurry to receive your item, you may wish to place an interlibrary loan request through your local public library. This will allow you to receive the requested item more quickly by eliminating the delivery time from Williams Library to your home. If we are unable to provide an item by the "date needed by" that you specified in your interlibrary loan request, we will notify you. If you do not specify a "date needed by" in your request, we will suspend efforts to obtain the item 30 days after we receive your request.

Cost
There is no cost to request and receive photocopies of journal articles.

Returning Materials
Photocopies of journal articles are yours to keep. You need not return anything to Williams Library.

Limitations
This document delivery service is available to distance students while they are enrolled in an NSU distance education course. We reserve the right to refuse to process requests for you if you have overdue library materials or unpaid library fines.

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