Document delivery
The document delivery service provides Victoria University (VU) staff and eligible students (PhD, professional doctorates, masters by research, and honours students) with material which is not held by the VU Library.
This includes books, research reports, theses (where available for loan) as well as copies of journal articles, chapters from books or conference papers required for your research and teaching.
Some items are supplied as loans and others as copies which may be kept. Copies are delivered online, but loans cannot be sent to VU Sydney or outside Australia. Most requests are completed within two weeks.
Before you place a request
If you are looking for a book not available at VU, try CAVAL reciprocal borrowing that allows you to borrow items from other Victorian libraries.
For articles, try the Library Search to locate items from VU Library subscribed databases.
How to access document delivery & interlibrary loans
If you are VU staff or an eligible student (PhD, professional doctorate, masters by research and honours students), there are now two ways to access interlibrary loan requests:
- via an interlibrary loan request form integrated with database and ejournal services; this form will prepopulate much of the bibliographic information
- via an interlibrary loan request form that requires you to manually fill in the bibliographic information.
Integrated form
If you search databases such as Ebsco Discovery Service, Web of Science, Scopus etc, and identify a resource in your result that that is not held by VU Library in print or electronically, you can request a copy or a loan using our new integrated request form.
- Choose the database of your choice.
- From the results list – click on ‘get full text’ or ‘ full text access’ depending on the database .
- A full text access panel will display.
- If there is no available linked full text, you can select ‘Request this item through an interlibrary loan’.
- You will be required to complete the User Information section, ensuring your email address is correct.
- Click on the ‘Copyright acknowledgement’.
- The details of the article or book will be prefilled in. Check that they are correct and include any additional notes in the form
- Click ‘Request Item’.
Manual request form
If you require a book or article but have not searched a database first, you can fill in the interlibrary loan request form by entering the information manually into the blank form.
In order to submit a request, you will need to know as much bibliographic information as possible and select the type of item required (article, book, book chapter).
Delivery time
Desktop delivery of electronic journal articles or chapters will normally be within 10 working days. If your item arrives earlier, you will be notified via VU email. Books may take longer depending on the holding institution and if the item is available.
If the item is on loan you will have to wait until it is returned, plus delivery time to VU.
These timelines are for the standard service. The Document Supply team also offer a priority and a rush service – discuss these with them if you require an item urgently.
