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Education: M.Ed. Additional Library Resources

Interlibrary Loan

What is Interlibrary Loan and how can you use it?

We have a service called Interlibrary Loan that allows Gettysburg College students, faculty, and staff to borrow materials unavailable at Musselman Library from other libraries around the world. This service is fully integrated with MUSCAT Plus, the library catalog. Members of the campus community (including you!) are able to make and manage requests through their library account. 
 

Please note that we are not able to ship physical books to you. This service is available to help you request scans of book chapters and journal articles that are not available online through our library collection. See the box below for step-by-step directions on requesting these materials.

Request Articles / Book Chapters

Finding & Requesting Articles

First, check to see if our library has access to the article by searching for the title in MUSCAT Plus. If it is available through one of our subscriptions, the article should appear in your results list and provide links to the database through which you can read the full text. 

If it is unavailable through our library, change the dropdown beside the search bar to the "Search Other Libraries" option. If we are able to get it for you through Interlibrary Loan, it should appear in the results list and prompt you to "Request a digital copy." Please note that you will need to be signed in using your campus credentials in order to place these requests.

You will be notified via email when the article is available to access in your library account. 

                       

If you still cannot find the article you need, you may manually submit an Interlibrary Loan request to see if our team is able to acquire it for you. To do so, fill out this form. 

Step 1: Make sure we don't have access to an online copy of the book you want.

First, search our catalog, MUSCAT Plus, to see if we have an eBook copy of the title you need. You can filter to books that are available online by selecting "Online Resources" from the dropdown menu beside the search bar. If the book says Available Online, you can simply follow the link it provides instead of placing an ILL request. 

Step 2: Check credible digital repositories that may allow you to use an online copy of the book for free. 

Some databases that house free and legal copies of books include: Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, and HathiTrust. 

You are most likely to find a copy of a book on one of these sites if they were published before 1928, meaning they are now in the public domain. However, there may be some more recent publications depending on the copyright license, so feel free to search for your book regardless of the publication date. 

Step 3: Consider how much of the book you need and submit a request based on that choice. 

If you only need a chapter of the book...

Check if we own a print copy and request that the chapter be scanned into a PDF for you by a member of our staff. To do so, sign into MUSCAT Plus, search for your book and select it in the results list, then hit "Get a scan of chapter or pages." Please enter as much information as you can (i.e. chapter title, page range). If you're not sure what chapter you want, we can send you a scan of the Table of Contents. Table of Contents are also frequently available in the preview of a book on Google Books.

If we don't own a copy or it is checked out, search WorldCat. If the book is available on this platform, select the "Gett It!" button. This will direct you to sign into your MUSCAT Plus account, then give you the option to request a book chapter scan from another institution that owns a copy. 

Note: In order to comply with U.S. copyright law, no more than 10% (usually one chapter) of a book can be scanned for you.

 

If you want a physical copy of the whole book...

Search for the title on WorldCat to see if a public or academic library near you owns a copy. You can see the list of libraries with a copy, organized by state and name, when you select "Libraries worldwide that own item." If you see a library you know is close to you, reach out to them about borrowing their copy. As a local community member, you will likely be able to set up an account with them and borrow items.

Subjects: Education