Distance Library Services: Interlibrary Loan & Direct Borrowing

Borrow books in person at any of the University of Maryland System libraries by presenting your SU Gull Card.  As a distance student, you can also request that physical books be shipped to your home address from the SU collection, or any of our partner libraries in the UM System.  SU Libraries will pay to ship the book to you, but you will be responsible for shipping it back to us before the due date.

Direct Borrowing from University System of Maryland (USM) Libraries:

When you search for books using our online catalog, SURF, you can expand your search to include books at all of our partner libraries in the University System of Maryland (USM).  Although we cannot share each other's ebook access, we CAN request physical books in the circulating collections of partner USM libraries.  Whenever you see a "Request from UM System Library" button under a book's listing, click and follow the prompts to request that book.  If you have registered as a distance student with the library (Register for Distance Services), you will see an option to "Request Delivery to Home Address" -- leave the Pickup Institution set to Salisbury University, but check the box underneath it to alert us that you would like Home Delivery.  Books will arrive at SU in about 5-7 days, and we will then ship them onward to you. 

We participate in Interlibrary Loan (ILL) with libraries all over the US to support faculty and student research.  Interlibrary Loan allows fast and extensive exchange of articles digitally, and you can also use it to request book chapters, within copyright guidelines. If there is an entire book that you need for your research, we can also reach out to other libraries and try to borrow a copy.  If a book is not available at Salisbury University or at any of the UM System libraries, you can request the book through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). 

• You will see a "Request through ILL" button to click from within our catalog, SURF, when a book is not available in our system. 
• Fill in a brief request form.  (At this point, you will be prompted to register if it is your first time using ILL.  When you register, please identify yourself as a distance student in the notes section.) 
• The form will auto-populate from the catalog. You also have the option of going straight to your ILL account, and placing the request there, by entering the bibliographic data "manually." 
• Books through ILL usually arrive at SU in 10-14 days, but can take 4 weeks or more if they are difficult to locate.  We will then ship them on to you (and you will receive directions on shipping them back to us). 
• Most books can be borrowed with no fee from reciprocal lenders in our ILL networks.  If the lending library does charge a fee to borrow the book, we will email you to ask if you are willing to pay that fee out-of-pocket.  

Check out more information on My Library Accounts webpage.

Please note:  Orders for textbooks will be cancelled.  We cannot use our limited ILL funding to obtain textbooks for students.  Most libraries do not ship and lend them.  Shipping costs both ways often exceed the cost to access, rent or buy textbooks.