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Interlibrary Loans: Books to your home

Effective immediately, the Himmelfarb Library Documents2Go Interlibrary Loan service will ship books directly to your home!  What this means is that if we do not have the book that you need, we will borrow it  from another university library; once we receive the book, we will ship it to you at any location within the United States. 

How to request a book through Documents2Go:

  • Visit Documents2Go then login to our Documents2Go service with your NetID and password.
    • Example: If your email is jdoe@gwu.edu, your username would be: jdoe, and your password would be the same as your GW email password. Do NOT include ‘@gwu.edu’ in your username. 
  • Designate if you are looking for an article or a book, and then provide as much information as you are able to better assist us in finding exactly what you are looking for.

What to expect, how long will it take?:

These types of requests can take some time as we need to first find a library that is willing to send their copy of the book to us and then wait to receive it.  The timing is also dependent on the shipping service the lending library uses, such as USPS, FedEx, or UPS. Shipping from the lending library to Himmelfarb can take 1-2 weeks, and then an additional week or so for us to send it to your location. Please allow roughly 3 weeks for us to get the book to you from the time you create your request. We highly recommend requesting materials well before you need them. 

What will it cost me?

We will send these books to you free of charge, however if you want us to send an ILL book to your location, we ask that you pay return costs associated with shipping the book back to the Himmelfarb Library, and that you accept financial responsibility for any lost or damaged books. Once your request arrives to us, you will receive an email asking you to accept these responsibilities, along with a link to provide your shipping information so that we can send the book promptly to you. 

Can I request Himmelfarb to mail me a book the library already owns?

Absolutely. If you would like us to check out and send one of our books to you, please fill out the shipping form here: 

https://himmelfarb.gwu.edu/forms/shipping.cfm

If you have any additional questions do not hesitate to contact our Interlibrary Loan department at mlbdoc@gwu.edu

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