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Law Journal Staff: A Research & Policy Guide

A guide for the staff of the Catholic University Law Review and the Catholic University Journal of Law & Technology.

About Interlibrary Loan

What is Interlibrary Loan?

If you need an item that is not available on campus, the Law Library will borrow it for you from another library using Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Requests for books generally take two weeks to fill (materials are usually sent via US mail), so please plan ahead. Article requests are usually received more quickly.

Books borrowed through ILL are checked out to individual journal staff members.  They cannot be checked out to the journal.

What is the Consortium Loan Service?

The Consortium Loan Service (CLS) allows CUA students to borrow materials that are not available at the Catholic University Libraries, but are available in a library that is part of the local consortium of university libraries. See the link below for more information.

Due Dates

Llibraries generally loan materials for about three weeks. Due dates are determined by the lending library and must be honored in order to remain in good standing with other libraries. Failure to return ILLs promptly jeopardizes our relationship with lending libraries and could cause our borrowing privileges to be suspended.  ILL service is intended only for short-term access to materials.

Renewals

Renewals are at the discretion of the lending library. ILLs may not be renewed online. ILLs may be renewed one time only. Please contact Dawn Sobol to request a renewal.

Late Fees

Borrowers who return ILL materials late will be required to pay late fees of $1.00 per day.  Borrowers who have overdue ILLs will not be permitted to request ILLs or to borrow books from CUA’s law library.  Borrowers are also responsible for paying for lost or damaged ILL books. Failure to return an ILL or to pay late fees may result in a hold on the borrower’s academic record.

How Do I Make a Request?

CUA  Law students may request books, articles, and other items that are not available at the Law Library or CUA's Mullen Library. Click the link below to submit an ILL request.

Requests are usually filled in 3-10 working days. Delays or problems with your request will be communicated to you via e-mail. If you have questions about your request, please email Dawn Sobol at sobol@law.edu or csl-circ@cua.edu.

Before placing an ILL request, please check the following sources:

What Can I Request Through ILL?

We're happy to borrow items that are not available on campus.

In general, we will not borrow:

  • Materials which are non-circulating but still available at the Law Library (for instance, reserve or reference materials).
  • Materials readily available in PDF format.  See Bluebook Rule 18.2.1.
  • Official statutes: Bluebook rules explicitly permit citation to annotated (unofficial) codes in addition to the official code. Rule 12.2.1 states “If possible, cite statutes currently in force to the current official code or its supplement. Otherwise, cite a current unofficial code or its supplement…”
  • Extraneous material such as a copy of the cover, spine, table of contents, copyright page of journals, etc.
  • Newspaper articles.
  • Multiple ILL requests for the same item.