Interlibrary Loans

Do you want a  book or article that TCC doesn't have? These items can often be borrowed from other libraries through the interlibrary loan system. This service is available to current Tidewater Community College students, faculty and staff.  

Please allow at least a week for items to arrive. Availability, transit time, and other factors affect how long it takes us to receive a requested item.

We may not be able to borrow DVDs, textbooks, brand new books, really old books, or extremely popular titles. We will not borrow titles that TCC already has in the collection. Patrons are limited to ten interlibrary loans at a time.

Request An Interlibrary Loan 

Need more books on a subject but don't know the titles? Use WorldCat to find what's available in other libraries. (The more libraries that have it the better chance we have of borrowing it.)

Try Google Scholar to find articles that aren't in TCC databases. If full text access is not available you can request the article through interlibrary loan.

You can also talk to a librarian for help finding sources on your topic.

Tidewater Community College participates in the practice of interlibrary loan in order to allow patrons access to materials not held by their home libraries. We comply with copyright law of the United States (Title 17 United States Code), VIVA interlibrary loan guidelines, and the American Library Association’s Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States.

 In this document, libraries that supply a loan for a TCC patron are referred to as lending libraries. 

1. Interlibrary loan services are available to current TCC students, faculty and staff. A valid TCC ID card is required for this service. Community members can request interlibrary loans through their local public library system.

2. Patrons initiate an interlibrary loan by filling out a request form online, for each item needed. Patrons are limited to no more than 10 active interlibrary loan requests at a time.

3. TCC will not request interlibrary loans for items that are available in our libraries. This includes books on reserve or in the reference collection. TCC reserves the right to limit repeat requests for the same item. Priority will be given to requests for resources that support academic work. 

4. TCC cannot guarantee that patrons will receive every item requested through interlibrary loan. The following items are generally difficult or impossible to borrow: 

• Textbooks, especially recent editions     
• Recently published books or best sellers
• Reference books and oversized books
• Entire issues of periodicals
• Audiovisuals
• Rare materials, manuscripts, or fragile items

5. Library staff will put the requests into a resource sharing system to send them to other participating libraries. A lending library will then send the item to TCC. Availability, transit time, and other factors affect how long it takes to receive a requested item.

6. Patrons will be notified by email when an interlibrary loan has arrived. They can pick up items at the circulation desk where the items will be checked out to them. 

7. Articles are usually sent through a secure document delivery system. A link to the article in will be emailed directly to the patron.

8. Loan periods, renewals, overdue fees and replacement costs are determined by the lending library and may not correspond to normal TCC policy. Borrowers are responsible for overdue fines and any replacement or repair fees.

9. Requests for a renewal must be made before the book is due.

10. Patrons should return interlibrary loans to the circulation desk of the campus library where the items were originally checked out. Depositing interlibrary loans in a book drop or returning them to another campus may result in delays returning the item to the lending library.

11. Patrons have seven days after receiving the email to pick up the item. If the item is not checked out in seven days, it will be returned to the lending library. A pattern of late returns or requests that are never picked up may result in a patron losing interlibrary loan privileges.