BorrowDirect, E-ZBorrow and Interlibrary Loan: Getting Started

The Penn Libraries can help you obtain materials for your research in a variety of ways:

Need a book from the stacks?

• Search your title in the Franklin online catalog.  In the upper right corner, log in with your PennKey. In your search results look underneath Get It to see your request options for loans and scans.  Request In Print to have the book delivered to the circulation desk of the Penn Library of your choice. Request Scan to get a PDF of an article or book chapter

 Need a book that's not available or that Penn doesn't own?

• Use BorrowDirect or E-ZBorrow to instantly send a request for an item to a participating partner institution
• Use Interlibrary Loan for items unavailable in BorrowDirect or E-ZBorrow

 Need a scan of an article or a book chapter?

• Check the Franklin catalog first - Penn provides access to thousands of full text articles and e-books
• Use the Request Scan option in Franklin to get electronic delivery of an article or chapter from Penn materials
• Use Interlibrary Loan to request electronic delivery of scans from materials not owned by Penn

Need a DVD or a music CD?

• Check the Franklin catalog first - Penn owns thousands of DVD's and CD's
• Use Interlibrary Loan for items currently unavailable in the Penn collections

Need something only available on microfilm or another microtext format?

• Check the Franklin catalog first - Penn has a large collection of material in microtext formats
• If we own it, you can view and scan from microfilm/microfiche in the Van Pelt Microtext area, between the Circulation desk and the Moelis Grand Reading Room. 
• Use Interlibrary Loan to request a loan or a scan for items currently unavailable in the Penn collections

Contact us at the (virtual) Van Pelt Library Interlibrary Loan office:

Email Us:
interlib@pobox.upenn.edu