You can request articles in one of two ways:
How to request an article you found in a library database
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If we do not have access to a specific article, you should see the phrase "Request through interlibrary loan" below the article title. Click on that phrasing.
Here's an example from our Academic Search Complete database:
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If you're not already logged in, you'll be prompted to login with your Oswego username & password.
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If you've never used our ILLiad system before, you'll need to provide your contact information by completing the form that appears.
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Once you've completed entering your contact information - or if you've already done so - you should see a filled-in form with information about the article you're requesting. Here's what that looks like for the example I used in step 1:
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Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click Submit Request.
That's it! We'll e-mail you as soon as your request is available, and you'll be able to download a PDF of the article you requested.
How to request an article you found elsewhere
Before we explain how to request an article you found elsewhere, here are a few ways you can check to see if we already have access to the article:
Did you find the article in Google Scholar? If so, here are some instructions on how to connect Google Scholar to the library databases. Doing this means you'll see a link to the library databases right in Google Scholar:
If you found the article information somewhere else, here are some instructions on how to Search Our Collections for the article.
If you already know that we don't have access to the article you're looking for, you can go directly to our ILLiad system to request the article.
If you've never used ILLiad before, you'll be need to provide your contact information by completing the form that appears. Once that's done:
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Click on "Article" under the New Request heading:
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Complete the form with all the information you have about the article. You can also ask a librarian for help if you don't have the required information about the article.
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Once you've completed the form, scroll down and click Submit Request.
That's it! We'll e-mail you as soon as your request is available, and you'll be able to download a PDF of the article you requested.
Good to know
Time frame: Because all articles are shared with us electronically, you'll usually get them within a few days.
We'll email you when the item has arrived. You will have 30 days to download the PDF, and then it will be removed from our system. (Don't worry - your downloaded PDF will continue to work.)
Copyright restrictions: Our interlibrary loan department can only request 5 articles from the same journal, published in the last 5 years. This limit applies to the entire university, not just an individual. Because of this, we may be limited in how many article requests we can fulfill for you from the same journal.