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Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

This guide provides information on the Interlibrary loan services available to students, staff and faculty at Piedmont University.

Turnaround Time for Journal Articles

Libraries share journal articles with one another in PDF format. The time to receive a journal article, starting from when Piedmont University Library sends your request to other libraries for fulfillment is about 3 business days, sometimes less. You will receive an email notice from the ILL system when your article is ready. The notice will contain instructions on how to retrieve your article.

Communications Preferences

When your ILL account page opens, you can go to the bottom and choose Communications Preferences. By default, the ILL system will send you notices about your requests by email. You an also supply a cell phone number and receive text notifications about your requests.

There is a legally required setting named Do not send library account updates to me. The purpose of this setting is so you can opt out of receiving messages, as you might choose to do when establishing an account with a commercial company.

However, the Library and the ILL system will only send you messages about your ILL requests and your College email address will remain private.

The Library strongly urges you to continue receiving these messages. Check the box for Send library account updates to me. If you opt out, you won't receive automatic notices from the system, causing unnecessary delays in the processing of your requests.

Turnaround Time for Books

How long will it take to receive my requested book?

This depends on the type of material requested, on your location, on your work load at a lending library, and on the speed of the Postal Service or UPS. Books borrowed for a:

Demorest user

  • Usually take 4-7 business days to arrive at Demorest and become available for pick up within 24 hours.

Athens user

  • Usually take 4-7 business days to arrive at Demorest. We then transport the book to the Athens within 48 hours. You can pickup your book in the Campus Office.

Remote/Online user

  • Usually take 4-7 business days to arrive at Demorest, and another 1-2 days to be sent out by UPS to a cohort or off campus user.

How long will it take to receive a request that is in the Library's collection from another branch?

  • Books requested by Athens or Demorest users typically take 2-3 business days to be transported from one library to another; they become available for pick up almost immediately.
  • Books requested by Cohort/Online users are dispatched from Demorest by UPS within 48 hours of the receipt of a request and take 1-2 business days to arrive.