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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Reciprocal Borrowing

A guide explaining reciprocal borrowing privileges for visiting scholars from other institutions and Illinois patrons visiting other libraries.

Welcome!

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participates in reciprocal borrowing programs which give additional information resources and allow broader access to scholarly material for both U of I and unaffiliated students and faculty.

While reciprocal borrowing programs are limited to those listed below, other libraries may have procedures for obtaining borrowing privileges as a visiting scholar. Every library will have its own approach to these requests, so if you are interested in a particular library you should look for details on its website. 

Please note: Users are responsible for returning checked-out material to the lending library and for any fees or charges incurred. Users are also required to have authorized cards in addition to i-card identification to participate in the reciprocal borrowing program with OCLC.

OCLC

The OCLC Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program grants faculty members from participating institutions on-site access to the collections of other participating academic research libraries. A searchable directory of OCLC participants in the program is included for your convenience.

Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA)

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly known as the Consortium on Institutional Cooperation, includes the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago. BTAA member institutions provide reciprocal borrowing privileges to current faculty, emeritus faculty, students, and staff at the other member institutions. Borrowers must present an institutional ID and verify their current affiliation by authenticating it through the BTAA website. If the institutional ID is not a photo ID, a valid photo ID will also be required. 

BTAA member institutions:

  • University of Chicago
  • University of Illinois
  • Indiana University
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Maryland
  • University of Michigan
  • Michigan State University
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Northwestern University
  • Ohio State University
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Purdue University
  • Rutgers University
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison