Interlibrary Loans

The Interlibrary Loans service provides CMU students, staff, and faculty with books and articles not available at the CMU library. It also supplies other libraries with books and articles from our collection. The service is not available to individuals who are not CMU students, staff, or faculty. For lending policies that apply to borrowing libraries, see below.

Contact Information

Canadian Library symbol: MWCM

OCLC symbol: CNCMU

CMU Students, Faculty, and Staff

Note: The Library will limit its search for items requested by CMU undergrads to Canadian libraries. We will only submit requests to libraries outside Canada for CMU faculty, graduate students, and employees.

What is available for loan from other libraries?

• Books
• Small portions of e-books
• Photocopied articles
• Theses
• Some audio-visual material

What is NOT available?

• Entire issues or volumes of a periodical or journal
• Entire e-books
• Reserve items
• Reference items
• Archival material
• Audio-visual material (some exceptions)
• Text books

How long will items take to arrive?

You should allow at least one week for delivery, and sometimes up to two or three. You will be notified by email when the item arrives.

How long is the loan period?

Loan periods are set by the lending library, and vary from two to six weeks. Renewals may or may not be allowed. Items MUST be returned by the due date given.

What information needs to be in the request?

• Your name and email (or other contact information)
• If a book – author and title (check that spelling is correct)
• If an article – author, title, journal title, volume, issue, date, page numbers

What does it cost?

This depends on the library. We will try to get the item for free, but there may be a charge. This may range from $5 to $40. We will wait for your permission before requesting an item in these cases.

Borrowing Libraries

What is available for loan from CMU?

• Books
• Small portions of e-books
• Articles
• Audio-visual material – only on a reciprocal basis

What is NOT available for loan?

• Entire e-books
• Entire issues or volumes of a periodical or journal
• Reference items
• Reserve items
• Rare books

What is the loan period?

• Our loan period is three weeks, with one renewal allowed
• We will attempt to process and mail the requested item(s) within two business days

What information is needed?

• If a book – author, title, call number
• If an article – author, title, journal title, volume, issue, date, page numbers
• If a video – title, call number

What does it cost?

• Manitoba libraries: no charge.
• Canadian libraries outside Manitoba: $10.00 payable by invoice, or reciprocal arrangement.
• International libraries: $20.00 US payable through IFM.

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• Inter-Library Loans
• Patron Book Request (CMU)
• Patron Article Request (CMU)
• Institutional Book Request (non-CMU)
• Institutional Article Request (non-CMU)