Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service by which items not owned by the SAC Library can be borrowed or obtained from another library.
San Antonio College students, faculty and staff without overdue items or fines may request items through ILL.
Books and articles from magazines, journals, or newspapers not owned by the SAC Library may be requested through ILL. Videotapes not owned by the SAC Library and located at the Northeast Lakeview College (NLC), Northwest Vista College (NVC) Library, Palo Alto College (PAC) Library, or St. Philip's College (SPC) Library may be requested through ILL.
Generally, there is no charge for ILL, but some libraries may charge a fee to loan a book or copy an article. These fees must be paid when an item is picked up. The SAC Library pays mailing fees. The fine for an overdue ILL book/videotape is $.10 per day per book/videotape. The charge for a lost ILL book/videotape is set by the lending library and charged to the individual who received the book/videotape through ILL.
An ILL request form must be filled out for each book, videotape, or article desired. Requests for books must include the author, title, publisher, place of publication, and date of publication. Requests for articles must include the full title of the magazine, journal, or newspaper, volume number, issue number, date of publication, author of the article, title of the article, and pages of the article. Requests for videotapes must include the full title, producer/director/writer, place of production, and date of production. Listing the source of your reference is helpful and can prevent delays in obtaining the book, article, or videotape.
ILL request forms are located also at the Reference Desk on the second floor in Moody Learning Center (MLC) and at the Reserve Desk on the third floor in MLC 315.
Items requested from NVC, PAC, or SPC arrive usually in 2 to 3 working days. Items requested from other San Antonio libraries arrive usually in 3 to 5 working days. Items requested from libraries outside San Antonio may arrive in 7 to 21 working days, depending upon the geographic location of the lending library. ILL requests will be processed and sent as quickly as possible. You will be notified if your deadline cannot be met.
You will be notified by telephone or E-mail when the ILL item you requested is available.
ILL items may be picked up at the Reserve Desk in MLC 315. Please pay any charges at that time. ILL books/videotapes must be returned to the Reserve Desk.
Lending libraries state the terms of a loan, and the ILL borrower must abide by these terms. Loaned books/videotapes must be returned promptly to avoid jeopardizing our relations with lending libraries. Because libraries generally do not loan the following items, we do not request them: multi-volume sets, textbooks for classroom use, rare books, manuscripts, audiovisual materials, reference materials, and entire issues of periodicals.
The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies of copyrighted material. Libraries are authorized to furnish a photocopy if it is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If an ILL borrower uses a photocopy for purposes in excess of "fair use," he/she may be liable for copyright infringement. The SAC Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying request if, in our judgement, fulfillment of the request would violate Copyright Law.