Interlibrary Loan Service (ILL)

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service allows you to request items not owned by Polytechnique's Library. You can request a printed book, an article, or a book chapter from an ebook. The ILL staff will search catalogs of other libraries in Québec, Canada, the US, or abroad to locate the item and borrow it for you.

To get a physical document available in a Québec university library, we suggest using the Network loan service.

Request an item

Additional information

Fees

Requests are free of charge for the Polytechnique community. Costs are covered by the Library. Staff may contact you to validate your request.

ebooks

The ILL service cannot borrow full ebooks from other libraries. However, you may request a chapter (up to 20% of the book), as permitted by copyright law.

When making your request

If you know the ISBN or ISSN of your item, include it in the form. This helps speed up processing. Our ILL tool can automatically search using these identifiers, allowing you to receive electronic documents even outside library hours.

Delivery time

Printed documents may take 1 to 14 days to arrive. Items from Québec or Canada are usually faster than those from the US or abroad. If an electronic version is unavailable, we will ask if a printed copy is acceptable.

Once your document arrives

You will receive an email when your document is ready for pickup. If not picked up within two weeks, it will be returned to the lending library.

Item recall

Borrowed items may be recalled. If so, you must return the item promptly.

Terms of use

Electronic documents are sent by email within about 48 hours. The email includes a link to access the document. You must accept the Terms of Use before accessing it.

Information for other libraries

If you work for another institution and wish to consult or receive documents held by Polytechnique Montréal, please visit our information page for other libraries.

Contact us