Library
Electronic delivery of inter-library loans
Inter-library loan articles and book chapters can now be delivered electronically using the British Library’s Secure Electronic Delivery scheme.
To use the service just select the delivery method 'Secure Electronic Delivery' when submitting your request - the ILL will then be sent to you as an encrypted PDF.
Accessibility Services registered users
If you are registered for Accessibility Services then you may be eligible to receive unencrypted accessible PDFs of your inter-library loans. Just select the delivery method 'Accessible PDF (suitable for screen-readers)' when submitting your request. There is no need to follow the steps below to receive accessible PDFs, as these are just for users of the standard service.
Before you can receive ILLs by Secure Electronic Delivery, you need to:
1) Register for a British Library Account.
Go to http://ondemand.bl.uk/onDemand/home and select the option to ‘Register’ in the top right hand corner. You will need your account username and password to log in and access your documents.
There is a delay between registration and the account becoming live, so we recommend users register for an account as soon as they place their first ILL request. You only need to register once, as you can continue to use your login for all future ILL requests.
You may receive an automated email from the British Library asking you if you want to link your account to your institution's account. You don't need to do this to receive electronic ILLs, so please just ignore this message.
2) Ensure that Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader (version 9 or higher) is installed on the device on which you want to download the document.
Because the document is encrypted, it can only be opened using Adobe PDF reader. It is already installed on campus PCs and can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website: https://acrobat.adobe.com/uk/en/products/pdf-reader.html
Once you’ve opened your ILL, you can save multiple copies of the document to different devices and can print one copy of the document. The PDF is encrypted so it’s not currently possible to add notes or comments.
Please note that only inter-library loan items which are available at the British Library can be sent via this delivery method. It is only available for journal articles and book chapters, not for whole books. If we’re unable to send your document to you electronically, we will contact you to let you know and to find out how you’d prefer to receive your paper copy.
If you have any problems downloading your documents, please contact us on interlibrary@yorksj.ac.uk or call 01904 87 6149.