Borrow Direct is an

interlibrary loan Interlibrary loan (abbreviated ILL, and sometimes called interloan, interlending, document delivery, document supply, or interlibrary services, abbreviated ILS) is a service where patrons of one library can borrow materials and receive photocopies ...

service that allows member university students, faculty, and staff with library borrowing privileges and active e-mail accounts to borrow books directly from the libraries of the other member universities. The patrons' home library bears the cost of the service and there is no charge to patrons. The service began within and slowly spread to all the members of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schoo ...

, and has expanded since 2011 with the inclusion of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT) to non-Ivy (often so-called "Ivy Plus") institutions. Patrons may request monographs, microfilm, compact discs, and digital video discs, but no other print materials (such as journals or archives) or non-print media (such as ebooks). The Borrow Direct system will not allow patrons to place requests for items that the library believes to be available for checkout locally. Items requested are normally delivered within four business days after the request is placed, with an initial loan period of six weeks, with one renewal. Items may be recalled by the owning library at any time.

History

Borrow Direct went live in fall 1999 after a four-year planning and development period during which the three founding institutions,

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

, Penn, and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, collaborated with the Research Libraries Group (RLG) for project management and assessment. Borrow Direct expanded to seven member libraries in 2002 with the addition of

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model use ...

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

, and

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

. In 2004, Borrow Direct exceeded 100,000 transactions for the first time. Borrow Direct grew to include Harvard and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 2011. The

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

, Duke University, and Stanford University joined Borrow Direct in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017, respectively. Since its inception, Borrow Direct has successfully filled over 1.8 million user requests.

Participating institutions

References

External links

Official Website
{{authority control Library circulation Ivy League University and college academic libraries in the United States Library cooperation