Interlibrary Loan (Main Library)
  • Interlibrary Loan
  • Lending other Libraries
  • FAQs
  • Interlibrary Loan guidelines

What is Interlibrary Loan?
Interlibrary Loan is a service for SQU faculty, staff and registered students. It allows The Main Library users to borrow physical material from other libraries and universities, as well as obtain copies of articles or book chapters, conference papers, symposiums, books, Theses, that are not held by Sultan Qaboos University Libraries.
We have to clarify that all Colleges and Centers at SQU are eligible to the service with the exception of  three Colleges: Medicine, Nursing, Economics and Political Science, as they have their own libraries.
The Main library is dealing with many libraries all over the world to obtain Arabic and English materials. We have an understanding with many of these libraries with the exception of Countries from both Africa and South American continents.
 

How to fill ILL form:
The user can get the form from here.
The first step when completing the ILL form is:

  • Personal details will be at the top of the form, i. e Name, ID, Date of request, College, Department, Phone\Mobile, and Email.
  • Bibliographic citation will be next, i. e Book or Periodical or Theses title, Author, Title of article or book chapter, Year of publication, Volume, Number or Part, Month and Pages.
  • The next information to add is "Not required after", which will determine how to deal with the request.

    Entitlement per Academic year for the following categories of library users:

 

Type of user photocopies books
Faculty 50 10
Postgraduate and Researchers 45 8
Undergraduate Final Year Students 20 3
Administrative Staff 15 3

What Can Be Borrowed?
A copy of Articles, Conference papers, Symposiums and Book chapters:
Inter library loan service provides photocopy of articles, conference papers, symposiums and book chapters, by national, regional and international libraries, in both Arabic and English languages. These copies can be in print or electronic format, and both formats can be retrained by users.

Books, Journals, Reports:
These types of materials are loaned from various Gulf or International Libraries, for a period ranging from 2 to 3 weeks and can be renewed according to the lending library policies.

Theses:
Although we have an excellent database with a total of over 1.3 million full text Dissertation we still place orders for both Arabic and English unavailable published Theses and depending on the university library policies.

* We always ask our user to observe a period of two weeks until the document is delivered after submitting the ILL form.

Notification for the arrival of material
Users will be notified by Telephone or Email when the material has been received and processed by the ILL staff.

Checking Out and Returning ILL Materials
ILL materials can be collected and returned at the Reference desk\office in the ground floor only.
Each ILL item will have a band with important information for you and the library staff, including:
Due date
Conditions of Use
In Library Use Only
No Copying
Barcode for issuing/returning materials from your library account
Please do not remove this band from the material.
Materials received through Interlibrary Loan are by permission of the lending library and should be used in a timely manner. Every effort should be taken to safe keep the borrowed material by returning them promptly and honoring any conditions placed by the lending library.

Who can use this service:
Individuals are entitled to copies of articles only, organizations and institutions (books on loan and articles) not affiliated to Sultan Qaboos University when requesting books and articles from the Main library collection.

This service is not for:
 - Sultan Qaboos University Faculty, Staff and Students.

- The Main library does not allow the lending of books to any organization or institutions within the Sultanate of Oman. 


Lending Charges:
There are no Charges at present for this service.

Loan Period:
Book on loan: 3 weeks.

To benefit from this service librarians should contact: ill@squ.edu.om

1. What is Interlibrary loan?
Interlibrary Loan is a service that supports research needs by obtaining needed materials(Books, Article,  Conference papers, Symposium , Microfilms, Theses and CD-ROM) not available at SQU libraries.
This service is offered to currently enrolled students "undergraduate final year students, postgraduate students, faculty and staff " of Sultan Qaboos University only. We have to clarify that all colleges and centers are eligible to the service except three Colleges, Medicine, Nursing, Economics and Political Science as they have their own libraries.
The Main library is dealing with many libraries all over the world to obtain Arabic and English materials. We have an understanding with many of these libraries with the exception of countries from both Africa and South American continents.
 

2. Do I have to pay for Interlibrary loan service?
No, you do not have to pay. It is free. 

3. How long it takes to receive a journal article or book as Interlibrary loan request from another library?
Please allow two weeks in case the needed material is not available or missing from the first library we requested from.  There are exceptions to this rule when a user can receive ILL items within 3 days. With Arabic materials, books are not exchanged with many libraries but with Arabic articles you can get them between 3 to 4 weeks. Arabic Theses unfortunately take 3 months to receive. 

4. How do I get reference help from a librarian?
Stop at the Reference desk at the entrance of the Main Library.
Or call the Reference desk at (+968 24145619). 
Or via email:  (Reference@squ.edu.om).

5. Why was my request cancelled?
It was cancelled due to the availability of the material within SQU Libraries.
 

6. Can I request media (CDs, DVDs, etc.)?
Only if the material is kept in that format.