Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and GIL Express

GIL Express

GIL Express is an initiative of the University System of Georgia (USG) to allow faculty, staff, and students at any USG school to borrow eligible books from any other USG library. When you place a GIL Express request in the catalog, the library that owns the item will ship it to your home library, or any USG library you choose, for you to check it out. This system also allows you to return your items to any USG library.   You will get an email when your book is ready for pickup.

This service is limited to circulating items only, usually books.  It does not allow for technology such as laptops or cameras to be sent.

GIL Express Pros and Cons

Pros:

• GE books come with a 28-day checkout period plus two automatic renewals or until the end of the semester, whichever comes first.
• GE books tend to arrive a little faster because they have less ground to travel.
• You can track the status of your GIL Express request in your GIL Library account. Click the “REQUESTS” tab, and then choose the library that owns the book on the left-hand side. You can see the status of your transaction at that point.
• You can request textbooks on GIL Express.
• All of the USG libraries participate in GIL Express year-round.

Cons:

• Only circulating books can be requested on GE. No A/V, microfilm or scans of articles/book chapters, e-books, etc.
• Books can only be requested from the 26 USG libraries. Institutions like Emory University and the public libraries do not participate in this service.
• We have no knowledge of the status of any GE transactions until the book(s) arrive. We can’t answer questions about the status of a request for you, because we don’t have access to your GIL account.
• The 10 day pickup window is a system-wide rule, and is non-negotiable. On day 11 books still on the hold shelf must be sent home.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan (or ILL) is an agreement and service between all types of libraries, whereby a library can borrow an item or get a photocopy from a journal or book that it doesn't own.  This is a library-to-library service.  You tell us what you need, and we make the request to libraries that own it.  In turn, they trust us to return the item to them on time and in good condition.  You will get an email when your ILL item is ready for pickup. 

Items requested are meant to support Georgia Southern research and teaching. 

Interlibrary Loan Pros and Cons

Pros:

• We can request books, microfilm, A/V, articles, book chapters and more from libraries across the United States.
• If the first batch of libraries refuses to fill a request, we can go to the next batch for you. We will keep going until we run out of lenders.
• We can track the status of a request in ILLiad, and answer questions at any time.
• We can get book sets, or specific volumes of books from lenders, as long as the request makes it clear what the patron needs.
• Some ILL books arrive with a very generous loan period of up to 12 weeks.

Cons:

• Textbooks may not be requested on ILL. E-books are not available on ILL due to licensing restrictions set by the publishers.
• The lender chooses when an item is due. Renewals are not automatic, and not always granted.
• Returnable items may take longer to arrive if they are coming from states far away, or if they are coming from understaffed libraries that need more time to answer a request.
• You can’t track ILL books in your GIL account. You need to use your ILLiad account instead.
• Not every library participates in ILL. Some do not at certain times of the year, and others never do.