Materials Not Owned By MIT -- Overview

If you identify specific book titles or specific articles from
journals that are not owned by the MIT Libraries, AND if those titles
are related to your work at the Institute, we are able to obtain them
for you through Interlibrary Borrowing.  Forms for Interlibrary
Borrowing requests are available on the MIT Libraries Web Page at
http://nimrod.mit.edu or at any of the MIT Libraries Reference
Desks. Some of the databases in FirstSearch allow Interlibrary Borrowing
requests to be made online.  If a FirstSearch database has an "Order" 
option at the bottom of the screen, it can be used for Interlibrary 
Borrowing.  See OWL Stock Answer for FirstSearch under Other
Electronic Resources.

If your work requires extensive use of materials not available at MIT,
you may qualify for a Boston Library Consortium (BLC) card which would
enable you to borrow materials from another BLC library.  Consortium
Library Cards are available at the Humanities Library Reference Desk,
and the Reference staff can advise you on this option. 

Otherwise, you can usually consult the collections at Boston Library
Consortium (BLC) libraries (but not borrow books) simply by presenting
your MIT ID card.  Be aware, though, that some of the libraries
restrict access to their own institution's affiliates at peak times,
so you should check before going anywhere.

Finally, if you need to borrow materials for personal use unrelated to
your MIT work, you can request an Interlibrary Loan through your local
public library.  We regret that our resources do not permit us to
support Interlibrary Borrowing for the MIT Community for personal use.
(See the OWL stock answer on Interlibrary Borrowing for more
information.)