Borrowing from Another Library

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Open Access (Free) repository or location

  • Google Books and Google Scholar (only a portion of the pages might be open-access but that portion may be all you need)
  • Amazon's "Look inside" feature (only a portion of the pages will be open-access but that portion may be all you need)
  • Open Access Button
  • Unpaywall
  • Note: there are many other sites that offer free items, but these are recommended because they each search a massive amount of sites/content; if you don't find something here though, you might be able to find it at another site.

Other academic, public, school, and special libraries

  • Patrons who live in a United States’ state, even if only for part of the year, are strongly urged to obtain a public library membership.
    • This will give them free access to both the public library’s physical and digital resources.
    • For example, the North Carolina public library system’s online resources website is NCLive.org, and it has extensive access to eBooks, audiobooks, videos, periodicals, etc.
  • There are thousands of libraries of various types throughout the United States and other countries.
    • Many of these allow on-site access and use of their physical and digital resources as well and possibly even allow checkout privileges with or without a fee.
    • Patrons are encouraged to make use of these libraries as well.
  • WorldCat.org is an excellent site to use when searching for an item when one does not know what library would have it.
    • WorldCat searches thousands of libraries around the world and sorts the search results by proximity to the users' location.
    • With this information, one can then contact the library to find out its policies regarding usage and borrowing of its physical and digital resources.

Other libraries in a reciprocal borrowing program

  • CU students, faculty, and staff have in-person borrowing privileges to the physical collections at any of the participating libraries in accord with their borrowing policies.
  • For more information and for locating a participating library, go to the following sites:
  • Note: Though not an agreed-upon aspect of the programs, it is possible that these libraries would also allow on-site access to their digital resources as well.

Other libraries through Interlibrary Loan

  • What is Interlibrary Loan and who can use it?
    • If a physical or digital item is unavailable at CU, any CU student, faculty, and staff member may request the item by Interlibrary Loan thru the Manuel Library. Another library may be willing to provide the item, but this is not guaranteed.
  • How do I make a request?
  • How do I get my item?
    • When an item is requested, the Manuel Library will attempt to obtain it. The library will contact the patron when the item arrives here. If it is a digital item, it will be emailed to the patron. If it is a physical item, it may be picked up at the library or shipped to the patron if the patron lives at least 45 minutes away from CU.
  • What does it cost?
    • The library will cover the postage to ship items to the patron and the postage to return items to the library.
    • The patron must pay any other monetary cost (e.g. overdue fines) incurred in the transaction.
  • What else do I need to know?
    • The lending library will specify as to when the loan item is due back, and certain items on interlibrary loan may be limited to use inside the Manuel Library.
    • The patron should allow sufficient time for the Manuel Library to return the item to the lending library by returning it to the Manuel Library by the date assigned to the patron.
    • The Manuel Library cannot handle international shipping.
    • The patron must allow the library 24 hours from the item’s arrival, not counting Saturdays and days closed, to prepare the item to ship.
    • Entire books are likely to be loaned from other libraries as a physical item. It is not likely to be loaned as an eBook for copyright reasons though a portion (e.g. one chapter) of an eBook may be loaned.