When you find that the Library does not have the articles or books you need, don't turn away, there are ways we can help get them for you.

 

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service that complements our collections.  Materials that we do not have can be obtained from other libraries, publishers and document suppliers through ILL. This service is built on a strong resource sharing network, which enables us to get materials from thousands of libraries around the world, and our network is ever growing.

 

In 2014-15, we had two new partners:

 

National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC) 中國科學院文獻情報中心
China Academic Library & Information System (CALIS) 中國高等教育文獻保障系統

NSLC functions as a key library with a role to collect resources on natural sciences and the high tech fields.  It has a collection size of 11.5 million items.  CALIS is a nation-wide resource-sharing system, with over 500 Chinese academic libraries.

 

ILL is not only about borrowing documents from other libraries, it also covers buying theses and dissertations, requesting photoduplication of rare and special materials, verifing incorrect or incomplete citations in order to locate the documents, buying unpublished technical reports or articles published ahead of print, and more.  In short, ILL is a service that links you to the resources you need.

 

Next time when you cannot find documents in the Library, send requests to the HKUST ILLiad system http://illiad.ust.hk or at lbill@ust.hk.  We can help.