Interlibrary Loan

As of 7/23/25, ILL has implemented a new policy for active request limits on all ILLiad counts.

Faculty/Staff: 75
Graduate Students/Visiting Scholars: 50
Undergraduates: 25

Active requests are defined as requests that are being processed, on hold for, or checked out to the patron. Delivered articles within the 30 day storage window on ILLiad do not count as active requests.

Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis. Please email us at ill@vt.edu if you have any questions.

Welcome to Virginia Tech's Interlibrary Loan.  We provide a variety of services to Virginia Tech faculty, students, and staff located in the Blacksburg campus area, in addition to extended users across the country. 

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

• not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
• owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
• owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.

You can assess FAQs submitted via the Library's Ask a Librarian form; search for the heading or keyword Interlibrary Loan.

Due to budget constraints, University Libraries had to prioritize its journal holdings, and as a result, the Library no longer has access to some journal titles from the publisher Elsevier.  More information can be found on the Library's Elsevier Cancellation page.  Check our Journals Index for the most accurate listing of coverage by title.  Alternate sources for some journal content can be found on open access sources.

If you have issues obtaining the articles you need, please do not hesitate to submit a request via ILLiad.  Many articles can be delivered to your ILLiad account within 24 hours, some within a couple hours, if the request is submitted Monday - Friday from 9:00am to 4:00pm.