Interlibrary Loans for VIU Students and Employees

Starting Friday, November 15, and lasting until the conclusion of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) national strike, physical lending and borrowing of interlibrary loans will be disrupted. 

• VIU is unable to guarantee the timely arrival of any new or in-progress requests for physical materials from other libraries. Electronic requests (e.g., for journal articles, book chapters, etc.) continue to be processed.
• VIU is not accepting new physical lending requests from external libraries. Electronic requests are not impacted.
• Any physical items VIU has borrowed from other libraries will not be returned until the conclusion of the strike.

If certain books or articles that you need for your research are not in our collection, we may be able to get them for you from another library at no charge.

• Request an article
• Request a book
• Request a book chapter
• Request a thesis/dissertation
• Track & manage your interlibrary loan requests

Need help? Check out our video at the right or email ill@viu.ca.

Due to licensing and copyright restrictions, full electronic copies of books are not often available through interlibrary loan. Individual ebook chapters can still be requested.

Journal articles take about 2-3 days and books take 1-2 weeks.  These times are estimates. Items may arrive sooner or later depending on where they are shipped from.

Please ensure that our ILL delivery address, bnm@relais-host.com, has been added to your safe sender list, or your requested materials may be sent to your junk folder.

Other Libraries Wishing to Borrow from VIU Library

Please log in with your account to place your requests. Don't have an account with us yet?  Please contact us to have your account set up.

Overdue Interlibrary Loans

Library borrowing and online access privileges may be suspended when interlibrary loans are long overdue. Borrowers are expected to pay the replacement cost of lost or damaged items. If long overdue items are returned, replacement costs may be waived, and borrowing and online access privileges may be restored.