Interlibrary Loan

For all matters regarding the library, literature research, and how to employ the various services available, our staff at the Information (one each at their respective library) will gladly assist you with your problem. For contact information, please refer to Locations.
If you prefer, you can also contact us via Ask a librarian

You can check your borrowed media, orders, and reservations at any time through your personal account. After logging in, click Account/Renewal in the catalog.

The Borrowed Items, Requested Items and Fees / Account Suspensions submenus will inform you of the current state of your account.

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Through the interlibrary loan service, you can request books and other media, as well as articles from books and academic journals, that are not available at the University Library of Erlangen-Nuremberg (UB) or any other local library. The UB will then attempt to obtain the materials from other libraries.

Please note the following when ordering a scan or printout from a medium::

• You may only use them for private, non-commercial purposes.
• Complete journal articles can be provided as scans or printouts.
• However, you may only receive a scan or printout of up to 10% of a monograph.

The following types of media cannot be ordered via Interlibrary Loan:

• Articles from popular magazines such as Focus, c’t, and Time Magazine
• Newspapers
• Media that can be purchased for up to €15 at a bookstore

For more information, please visit the interlibrary loan page.

Delivery time depends on how long it takes to find your book in the stack and its availability. Accordingly, delivery can be slow or quick.
On average, delivery within Germany takes 10 days.

The requested items will be held on the pickup shelves or at the service desk of the selected pickup location for 10 business days.

Copies of articles for non-commercial use are delivered electronically. You will receive an email notification with a download link, which will allow you to access the PDF documents within 40 days. Your library account will be charged for the incurred costs; payment can be made at the payment station.

In cases where electronic delivery is not possible, article copies will be held for eight weeks at the circulation desk or counter of the selected pickup location.

All orders will be released only upon presentation of an FAUcard or library card.
Unclaimed items will be returned, and unclaimed copies of papers will be destroyed. The library user will be responsible for any resulting costs.

We will notify you via email when your order is ready for pickup.

Sometimes, we will ask for more information about your order or inform you that we cannot provide the medium you need.
If we do not have your email address, we will leave a note at the service desk where you ordered the medium. If this is the case, please check with the service desk regularly to see if there is a message waiting for you.

You can find an overview of your current interlibrary loan orders in your library account. Book orders are listed under “Requested Items,” and copies of media are listed under “Interlibrary Loan: Articles & E-Books.”

The length of time you can keep an interlibrary loan depends on the library that provided the book. There are no uniform regulations regarding this matter.
In most cases, the loan period is four weeks, but it can be much shorter.

Whether or not you can extend the lending period depends on the library that sent us your book. If the lending library generally allows extensions, you can extend the lending period via the catalog.

A lending library may impose restrictions on media delivered via interlibrary loan to another library. For example, the library may limit use to the reading room or prohibit copying. The University Library of Erlangen-Nuremberg must inform its users of these restrictions.

Ordering books via Interlibrary Loan is free within Germany.
However, a copyright fee of €3.50 will be charged for copies of articles from books or journals.
The fee for ordering media internationally is higher. The interlibrary loan desk teams will inform you of the fees.

As an alternative, you can use the subito document delivery service.
This fee-based, nationwide service allows academic library customers to quickly and easily order copies of articles from print journals or books. Subito also supports book loans.

Searching – Borrowing & Ordering – Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery Services – Document Delivery Services

According to §60e of the German Copyright Law, the university library may provide paper copies of up to 10% of a medium.
However, articles from professional or scientific journals may be provided in their entirety.
However, the delivery of individual articles from newspapers, general-interest magazines, or newsstand magazines (for example, Der Spiegel or Focus) is not permitted.