A Reply to the Library Never Has Anything

Hello Everyone,

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the pharse the library never has anything or for a school with five doctoral programs with a sixth one on the way, you would think that they would have more library resources. As a graduate student, you will never find me objecting to the library adding to its collection in any way, shape, or form.

The one thing that many of these people do not realize, however, is just because we don't have something whether it be a book or article, does not mean that we cannot get it for you. For instance, we are a member of PALCI E-Z Borrow. I just call it E-Z Borrow for short because it's easy. E-Z Borrow is a lending agreement for books with all the academic libraries in Pennsylvania along with some in New Jersey and West Virginia. Now you won't be able to get reference books or rare archival materials, but you will be able to get pretty much any other book in about 3-10 days.

Also in terms of articles, we use Rapid ILL. All you have to do is place a request for an article, and we'll search the surrounding libraries for it. Depending on the time of the request and the volume of requests, you could recieve your article that same day or in a couple of days via email. Personally, the longest it ever took me to receive something was a week, but there was a glitch in the system. Now you may notice a field that asks how much are you willing to pay for this item. Don't worry about that field. 99.9% of the time, there is no charge, and we will contact you before doing anything. As I mentioned in a prior post, I am working on my masters thesis. I have literally use Rapid ILL over a hundred times, and I have been only asked to pay once. I ended up finding the article on google scholar for free.

In order to do this all you have to do is have the barcode on the back of your student ID ready and head to the library home page and click on interlibrary loan (I circled the exact location in red in the picture) both EZ-Borrow and Rapid ILL will be on the next page. Click on which one you need and enter your student ID to begin.

As much we all may despite it, not all research could be at your finger tips immediately. Consequently, we all have the responsibility to start our research early to ensure that we have adequate resources for our projects. Remember if you ever need any help getting started you could come by the Ask Here desk, schedule an appointment using the green Research Consultation form, and/or email us at libraryhelp@maryu.marywood.edu.

Until next time,

Erin:)