What Does Get it for me Service Entail? 

It includes traditional interlibrary loan: you may request books, journal articles, documents, microforms, sound and video recordings, dissertations/theses, scores, etc. that are not owned by TAMU Libraries.

It includes electronic delivery of article-length copies: you may request a pdf copy from journals, books, microforms, and other texts either owned by TAMU libraries or other libraries; formerly known as deliverEdocs.

It also includes book retrieval: you may request books to be retrieved from the TAMU libraries' book shelves and hold them at your home library's circulation desk for you to pick up.

In short, you request it, we will try our best to find it and get it for you.

What Does It Cost?

The service is free. However, we charge the shipping cost for items sent to TAES stations. TAES employees: you will have to create an account with our business office. Please call 979-845-5717 or 979-458-4065.

What Cannot Be Requested?

We will not scan an entire book, and we urge patrons not to submit a request for an article or chapter that exceeds 50 scanned pages.

We will not scan items housed in our Course Reserve Department.

We cannot scan items in Micro Print format.

We cannot retrieve books housed in our Cushing Special Collection Library or in our Map room for you.

If your home library is at Evans, for items housed in the Library Annex Education Media Services, we won't retrieve it for you, you will have to check out in person there. However, if your home library is at BLCC, PSEL, or Qatar, we will deliver the DVD/VHS/CD to your library for you to pick up.

How Many Requests Can I Submit Per Day?

We strongly suggest that no more than 10 requests are submitted per day. The service is heavily-used.

How Long Does It Take To Receive a Requested Item?

It generally takes 2-4 days for article deliveries and 3-10 days to receive requested loan materials, depending on availability. Some requests can take much longer, and others can be available in less than 48 hours or even faster. For items not available in TAMU libraries, the document delivery/interlibrary services staff members use several international interlibrary loan networks to place your requests. Requests are automatically routed to five or more libraries in a sequence. Each library has up to four days to respond to our orders. Delivery time depends on many factors, but the main variables are where the material is located and how quickly that library or supplier responds to requests. Library users should identify sources needed well ahead of the due date of a paper or project.

If you need an item by a specific deadline, please indicate "not wanted after date" on the request form. Also, in the note field, leave a note for us, such as "RUSH, Please." Staff members will make every effort to get the material to you in the shortest time possible. If we are unable to fill your request by the "not wanted after date," your request will be cancelled.

Can I Ask to Copy More Than One Article/Chapter or Loan Multiple Volumes In a Single Request?

There is to be only one article/book chapter or one volume loan per request form; therefore, only the first article/book section will be supplied if more than one article/chapter or loan is requested.

How Can I Check the Status of My Request?

Log in to your Get it for me account. Under the View section, click Outstanding Requests. You will then be directed to a page with a list of all your requests in process with their corresponding statuses. If you click on the transaction number of a request, you can view detailed information regarding that request.

What Do the Following Statuses Mean?

Request Sent: your request was sent to several owning libraries and document delivery/interlibrary services staff are waiting for a response.

Awaiting Customer Contact: your requested item has arrived. Staff are preparing the item for you. Please don't come to pick up the book until you receive an email notification from us.
Should be within couple of hours.

Awaiting Post Receipt Processing: your requested item has arrived from the lending library.  Staff are preparing the item for you, such as placing a book band on it.

Awaiting Copyright Clearance: your article request is waiting copyright processing to determine if any copyright fees need to be paid by the library.

Transit to PSEL/BLCC: your requested item is being transported to your home library. You will receive an email notification from your home library when it is ready for you to pick up.

Awaiting SFX Request Processing: your request was imported from the database link of which we don't have full text online, and is now ready to be searched and requested from potential libraries.  From here it may be routed to various staff for processing.  You will see different staff names in this status.

Awaiting Doc Del Request Searching: your request was routed to staff who will supply the item from collections at TAMU libraries.

Awaiting Conditional Processing: a potential lender has replied to your request, seeking more information.  Staff is responding.

Awaiting Unfilled Processing: your request has not been filled by the lenders we have contacted so far.  Staff is still working on your request.

Rapid Unfilled: your request has not been filled by the lenders we have contacted so far.  Staff is still working on your request.

Unavailable in Local System: your request has not been filled by our own Medical Science Library.  Staff is still working on your request.

Odyssey Document Received: your requested article was shipped by a lending library and was automatically received by the system and posted to your Get it for me account.  You received an email about it being available for viewing.

In Electronically Delivery Processing: your article has been received electronically and will be posted to the web shortly.  You will be contacted by email when it is ready.

Delivered to Web: your copy is available for viewing/printing/downloading from your Get it for me account.

Request Finished: if this is an electronic copy, it is no longer available because it has been on the web for 30 days, or you deleted it.  If it is a loan, the item has been checked in and returned to the lending library.

Difficult Request Searching: your request could not be requested easily and needs some additional searching and examination.

In DD Stacks Searching: your request is currently being searched in the libraries' collection to be retrieved for copying or picking up.

How Will I Know When the Requested Item Has Arrived?

When your requested items are ready to be picked up, staff will notify you by email. Loans must be picked up at the library selected when you first registered with Get it for me.

For distance education students and TAMU state extension agencies' users, you won't receive an email; we will mail the items to your home address with a UPS postage prepaid return address label.

For faculty, if you choose to have items sent to your office mail box via the campus mail service, you won't receive an email either.

Photocopied items will only be posted on the web in PDF format for you to download and print. Log in to your Get it for me account. Under the View section, click Electronically Received Article. The items are viewed in Adobe Acrobat. Please remember that the documents will be removed 30 days after a notification email is sent to you, not 30 days after you first view the documents. If you no longer need an article, you can delete it manually by pressing the "delete" button. If you find that you will need to use the document longer than 30 dyas, be sure to save the PDF locally before deleting.

Can I Get Back an Article that I Accidentally Deleted?

Yes! You can contact Document Delivery/Interlibrary Services (979-845-5641 or ilsshare@library.tamu.edu) with the transaction number of the document/article. The department is open Monday through Friday from 8-6. Or you can stop by any Check Out desks to ask for assistance.

How Long Can a Borrowed Item Be Kept?

The loan period is assigned by the lending library. Please check the due date printed on the yellow book strap. The lending library may impose restrictions on use, such as LIBRARY USE ONLY, NON-RENEWABLE, or USER'S SIGNATURE REQUIRED. In some cases, they may also elect to give us a shorter loan period. We ask your cooperation to abide by these restrictions so we may continue to use these libraries' collections on behalf of the TAMU community.

How Can I Renew a book?

For an Interlibrary Loan Item (item strapped in yellow paper): Log in to your Get it for me account. Under the View section, click Checked Out Items and click on the transaction number of the request you want to renew. At the top, left corner of the form, click Renew Request in red. Please renew the item before the due date. A two-week renewal will be automatically granted until we hear otherwise from the lending library. If a renewal is denied by the lending library, we will notify you via email and let you know the new due date of the loan.

Occasionally a lending library tells us at the time of the loan that they will not honor a renewal request. If there is such a restriction, it will be noted on the yellow strap of the loan cover, and you will not be able to renew it from your account.

For TAMU Libraries' book: At TAMU Libraries' online catalog (libcat.tamu.edu), click My Library Record tab, log in with your NetID, and click the Renew box of the record you with to renew. Please don't log in to your Get it for me account to renew your TAMU libraries owned book, it won't work.

Why Some Interlibrary Loan Item Has To Be Used In the Library?

Some material is fragile or rare, and lending libraries often designate these items as In Library Use Only. You will not be allowed to take such items out of the library. These restrictions are set by the lending library and we are bound to follow them. We cannot change these conditions, and we ask patrons to honor them. The In Library Use Only is kept on the 2nd floor of Evans' Current Periodical Room. When you go to Check Out Desks to get the item, staff will notify you and redirect to the Evans' Current Periodical Room.

Where Should a Borrowed Item Be Returned?

All borrowed items must be returned to the Evans Check Out desks, West Campus Access Services Desk, or the PSEL Circulation Desk. Do not place yellow strap interlibrary loan items in book drops located throughout the campus. Please leave the yellow book strap attached to the item. Materials obtained through Interlibrary Services are for your exclusive use and are your responsibility from the time they are picked up until they are returned to the above mentioned service desks.

For Faculty: if you chose to have items delivered to your office mail box via the campus mail service, you can reuse the envelope and send the item back to the library via the campus mail service.

I am on Sabbatical Leave in Other City, Will You Mail a Book to Me?

Yes, but please change the personal information in your Get it for me account. Please change your status to Distance Education.

Are There Fines for Overdue, Lost or Damaged Items?

Late return of materials can jeopardize the TAMU libraries' opportunity to borrow from other libraries in the future. Lending libraries may assess overdue, lost, and damage fines. You will be financially responsible for any late fees, replacement costs of lost material, and cost of damages levied by the lending library.

Failure to abide by the ILS rules may result in the suspension of Get it for me service privileges.

Why Am I Blocked From Using the Get it for me Service?

You will be blocked from using Get it for me services if you fail to return the interlibrary loan item one week past its due date.

You will be blocked once you graduate from TAMU or move to another institution.

If you believe it was a mistake for us to block you, please contact us at 979-845-5641 or (ilsshare@library.tamu.edu).

Why Are Some of the Pages in my Articles Upside-Down or Sideways?

When lending libraries or student workers copy journal articles using a scanner, they sometimes scan some of the pages in upside-down. If the journal is small enough that two pages can fit onto one 8.5 x 11 page, the article may be scanned in "sideways."

Is Security a Problem If I Use a Public Workstation?

Yes. Web browsers cache information and create a history file on the local workstation. This allows a subsequent user of the workstation to access the system under your name using the browser's Back button to recall a page from the cache, or by finding a page with your personal information in the browser's history file. If you are concerned about the security of your interlibrary loan requests, you can take the following steps:

Access Get it for me only from your personal computer or an otherwise secure workstation.

When using a public access workstation: delete from the history file those pages that contain your personal information; exit from the Web browser before you leave the workstation. This prevents the Back button from accessing the pages you were using.