The interlibrary loan service helps ECU students, faculty, and staff get items ECU doesn't have currently available in the ECU Libraries.
We can usually get articles, chapters, books, music scores, and much more for you.
Please submit requests using the ILLiad system for anything that you want. We don't place limits on your requests.
At the same time, though, some things are harder to get than others. But don’t worry — we’ll always try! Below are some tricky materials. If you want these kinds of materials, please still request them. If we cannot get what you request, we'll let you know and offer some suggestions.
📜 Archival Papers – Unique documents or manuscripts usually can’t leave their home library. They’re too rare or fragile to risk shipping.
💿 DVDs, CDs, Records, & Media – These are not loaned by all libraries and can break or scratch in shipping. As so much has moved to streaming, physical media is getting less available. Academic films can also be very pricey - not like a Hollywood movie release.
📖 Full Journals/Magazines – Bound issues are rarely loaned since they’re expensive or impossible to replace.
🌳 Genealogy Materials – Family history books and papers are often rare and hard to replace, so most libraries won’t lend them.
🆕 New Releases – New books and media take time to show up in libraries, and many won’t lend them immediately. They might also already be checked out elsewhere. You might need to wait, or we might buy a copy instead.
📰 Newspapers (Print) – Hard copies aren’t usually kept since they take up space and fall apart. Instead, we can often borrow microfilm or get PDF scans of articles.
🏺 Rare Books – Old, fragile, or valuable books (often pre-1900) aren’t loaned because they’re too risky to ship.
📗 Reference Books – These often don’t leave a library, but we can usually get PDF scans of entries or chapters.
💻 Software – Most libraries don’t lend software because of copyright law and licenses.
🏛️ Stuff ECU Already Owns – If ECU has it, we’ll point you to the online, print, or media copy. If it’s missing or checked out, we’ll borrow it from elsewhere. Remote students? We’ll ship it to you for free! Read this for details.
📕 Textbooks – You can request them, but most libraries won’t have or loan the textbook edition you likely need. Even if you get one, it’s usually only for a month (not the whole semester). Read this for more info.
🎓 Theses & Dissertations – Often only held by the school where they were written. Newer ones may be online from that university or in ProQuest. Older or international ones can be hard to get.
✍️ Unpublished Works – Drafts, reports, presentations, and other gray/grey literature aren’t always published, so they’re tough (sometimes impossible) to borrow.
