The Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Service supports the faculty, students (including distance learning students) and staff of the Naval Postgraduate School in their study and research by obtaining needed materials from other libraries and commercial document vendors. 

Who may use this service

Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery service is limited to faculty, students (including distance learning students) and staff of the Naval Postgraduate School. Requests must be for material in support of classroom teaching, research, studies, or other NPS mission-related tasks.

Verifying whether an item is available in the Dudley Knox Library Collection

Please check BOSUN, the Dudley Knox Library's online catalog, before placing a request. If an item has been checked out for more than two weeks, you may place a Hold (recall) request. (At this time, the Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Office will handle recalls for Distance Learning Students.) An interlibrary loan request will be processed only when it has been determined that the item is not available in the Dudley Knox Library collection, or in the case of a rush request, when there is not time to place a recall request.

For the full-text of journal articles, please check our Research Tools  Section

Request Limits

At this time there is no limit to the number of items that can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. If, however, you place ten or more requests at one time, please number them according to priority in the comments field.

Rush Requests

If an item is needed right away, please be sure to indicate the deadline date on the web request form. We will place a priority on rush requests, but cannot guarantee that materials will arrive in time to meet deadlines.

Arrival Notification

Returnable materials (such as books) will be held at the Library Circulation Desk and you will be notified by e-mail when requested items have arrived and are available to be picked up.

For Distance Leaning Students, materials will be sent to you via Priority Mail and we ask that books and other returnable items be returned to us in the same manner in sufficient time to arrive by the due date.

We will make every effort to deliver articles to you via the Web.

Loan Period, Renewals and Recalls

The loan period for books, microformat and audiovisual materials is determined by the lending library and may vary from two to four weeks. You are required to abide by any restrictions stipulated by the lender, such as “No Renewals” or “Library Use Only.”

Renewals are determined by the lender - please request renewal through our Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery System(you will be required to logon) at least three working days prior to the due date so that we may pursue a renewal for you. Depending upon the material, lending libraries generally grant renewals for an additional two to four weeks.

Interlibrary loan materials are subject to recall by the lending institution. If you receive notification that an item has been recalled, you are required to return the item to us within 24 hours.

Failure to honor due dates, lending restrictions and recalls could result in the loss of borrowing privileges.

Items that may not be available for Interlibrary Loan

• Textbooks are generally held in reserve collections and not available for interlibrary loan. Additionally, textbooks and other required readings are generally needed for use beyond the typical ILL loan period of 2-4 weeks. Before submitting interlibrary loan requests for textbooks and other required class materials, we request that you check on availability at the Navy Exchange Bookstore or with your professor to determine whether copies can be placed on Reserve.
• Books published in the current year are generally not available for interlibrary loan. Requests for books published in the current year can be placed by using the Library's Book Purchase Request Form.
• Audiovisual and microformat materials are often difficult to borrow, as many libraries do not lend these materials through interlibrary loan. We will make every effort to obtain requested materials.
• Items for personal use should be borrowed through your local public library.