Research Tools

Requesting Items from Other Libraries

CTW Consortium

The Trinity College Library is a member of the Connecticut College/Trinity/Wesleyan University (CTW) Consortium.  Students, faculty and staff of Trinity College have reciprocal borrowing privileges at Connecticut College and Wesleyan University.  Connecticut College and Wesleyan University holdings can be accessed via Trinity’s online catalog.  Items may be obtained either by visiting these libraries, or by requesting items through the online catalog. Items may be picked-up and returned at Trinity College Library.

Interlibrary Loans (ILL) and Photocopy Requests
Books and photocopies of articles from journals not owned byTrinity or the CTW Consortium are available via interlibrary loan (ILL) to students and faculty engaged in research. In general, there is no charge for book requests, but there may be a fee for obtaining photocopies.  ILL requests can be made directly from within WorldCat. or other library databases, or by entering your request directly into the electronic Interlibrary Loan service.

Before you place a request there are three things you must do:

1.) Check the CTW catalog! Make sure the item is not owned by any of the CTW libraries. Requests placed through ILLiad for items owned by the CTW library consortium will be automatically cancelled.

2.) Plan ahead! ILL requests can take anywhere from 3 days to several weeks so please plan accordingly.

3.) Know exactly what you want! You will need specific bibliographic information in order to place an ILL request:

For a Book, you will need:

• title of the book 
• name of author(s)
• publication date
• if possible (for faster service), the book’s ISBN (International Standard Book Number). 

For an Article, you will need:

• title of the article 
• name of author(s)
• title of the journal, newspaper, etc.
• volume number
• issue number (if applicable)
• date of publication
• page number(s)
• if possible (for faster service), the ISSN or ISBN

For a Chapter in a book:

• book title
• chapter title
• inclusive pages
• if possible (for faster service), the book’s ISBN (International Standard Book Number).

For a Dissertation or Thesis you will need:

• Title 
• Name of school
• Year of “publication”

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