Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Interlibrary loans are items borrowed for OCC students (currently enrolled and active in the current semester)  and employees from other libraries, and consequently are subject to varying loan periods and renewal periods, depending upon the lending library's policies. Interlibrary loans are also subject to federal copyright laws.

Requests are made through Multi-Search following these steps:

  1. Click the "Sign In" link in the upper right corner of the screen
  2. Log in using your OCC network account. 
  3. Find the item you would like to borrow and click the "Borrow From Another Library" link in the record OR complete the blank "Interlibrary Loan Form" at the top of the page.

ILLiad and Worldcat are also available to locate items not available in Multi-Search.  Please Note: When creating an ILLiad account you must use your OCC username as your ILLiad username ( eg., j.a.doe , j.doe or doej ) and your OCC email address for your email address ( e.g., j.a.doe@clasnet.sunyocc.edu , j.doe@sunyocc.edu or doej@sunyocc.edu ).

After requesting items, you will receive an e-mail when your item has arrived. The average time required to receive an item requested through ILL is approximately two to five working days. However, some requests may take longer, depending on what is ordered and where it is ordered from, so please allow adequate time for your requested materials to arrive.

Books and other returnable items can be picked up at the Coulter Library 1st Floor Service Counter.  Articles will be emailed to you.

Interlibrary Loan Policies

OCC students (currently enrolled and active in the current semester) and employees may request up to five (5) single returnable items (books, tapes, DVDs, CDs, etc.) and ten (10) single non-returnable items (e.g., articles) within a one-month period through interlibrary loan with a valid Coulter Library account. (When ordering a set of items, each item within the "set" counts as a single item.) Students may only have five (5) returnable items out at one time. ILL media requests are limited to twenty (20) single media items (DVDs, CDs, tapes, etc.) per year.

Renewals: Renewals of interlibrary loan items can be requested at Coulter Library either in person, by phone, or by email.  Renewals must he requested at least three days before an item is due, or the request will not be accepted.

Overdue Interlibrary loan items:  Coulter Library's relationships with other lending libraries rely on timely returns of lnterlibrary loan items.  Therefore, three late returns will result in the loss of Interlibrary loan privileges.