One of the fastest ways that you can borrow a library book that is not in the Cornell University Library collection is to use Borrow Direct. Even faster than traditional Interlibrary Loan, you can send your request for a loan directly to one of the participating libraries, and within four days you should have the book in hand!
The original participants are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Penn. And now, we have gained access to 25 million more volumes as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have joined Borrow Direct. This will increase the number of volumes available from more than 45 million to almost 70 million. This is a popular service among Cornell researchers, who made more than 21,000 requests to Borrow Direct in 2010.
When you search for a book in the Cornell Library Catalog, you will see the suggestion to try Borrow Direct when the book is checked out to someone else, or if it is on Reference and not available to be checked out, or is not owned by Cornell. Just click on Borrow Direct from that screen, and follow the directions from there.
Here’s the fine print: Materials are available within four working days of the request and can be borrowed for six weeks, with the option for another six-week renewal. The borrowed items are subject to recall by the owning libraries and are subject to the same overdue fines as Cornell-owned books.
Try it out and see how fast and easy Borrow Direct can be! Feel free to contact me or your librarian liaison with any questions.
Pat Court
Associate Law Library
