How To

If you are not able to find a book in the SCU catalog, there are two other ways to request items:

• LINK+ is a pooled catalog of books available from participating academic and public libraries in California and Nevada. If you wish to obtain a book that is not available at SCU, you may request the material yourself through LINK+. If you can’t find the book on LINK+, submit an interlibrary loan request.  
   
• Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a free services for SCU law students, faculty, and staff that allows you to borrow magazines, journal articles, and other digital and print research materials.
   
• Please note, though, that obtaining materials from other libraries can take time! Depending on where we can get the material you are requesting, it can take up to 2 weeks for us to receive materials requested, so we encourage you to plan ahead.

See below for guidance in how to request items using these services.

LINK+ is a pooled catalog of books available from participating academic and public libraries in California and Nevada. If you wish to obtain a book that is not available at SCU, you may request the material yourself through LINK+.

There is no charge for this service, and you usually receive your books within 3-5 business days.  Three key things to remember about LINK+:

1. You must first confirm that the book that you need is not available at SCU in order to obtain the material from LINK+. You can do this by searching the OSCAR catalog first.

2. You can’t use LINK+ to obtain magazine, newspaper, or law review articles from other libraries. If you need these materials, contact the research librarians.

3. Law Library patrons will need to pick up LINK+ materials at the University Library Circulation Desk.

How do I use LINK+?

Searching LINK+ can be done in two ways:

• You may directly search the entire LINK+ database at any time by clicking on LINK+ from OSCAR's homepage. From there, you may search by author, title, keyword or subject just as you do in OSCAR.
   
• After any search in OSCAR (e.g., author, title, keyword, etc.), you may re-do your search in LINK+ by clicking on the Search LINK+ or   buttons wherever they appear. 

If an item is available on LINK+, you will have the option of requesting materials. You will be asked for your name and barcode number or Campus ID from your ACCESS card.

You may also visit the website of any participating library to check out books directly.

Borrowing Materials

Materials such as journals, journal articles, computer software, and video cassettes ARE NOT available on LINK+.

Patrons will receive a LINK+ system message if requested materials are not available for borrowing.

Who Can Use LINK+?

Santa Clara University faculty, students and staff are eligible to use LINK+ as long as they have a current ACCESS card and are in good standing with the SCU libraries.

Receiving Materials

Patrons can expect to receive LINK+ materials within 3 to 5 business days following the request.  For more information about LINK+ policies, visit the University Library’s LINK+  FAQs page.

Interlibrary Loan is a service for requesting books and articles from other libraries when Santa Clara University doesn't have access to these items. It can be a valuable service for obtaining materials you need for papers or other class assignments. Please note, though, that obtaining materials from other libraries can take time! Depending on where we can get the material you are requesting, it can take up to 2 weeks for us to receive materials requested, so we encourage you to plan ahead.

To request materials through Interlibrary Load, go the the law ILL link here. 

• Login to your interlibrary loan account
  • Click on the Login with your SCU login link and enter your SCU Google Apps login info
  • On the left navigation bar, under New Request, choose: 
    • Case (Search Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw to verify that this case is not available locally before requesting it.)
    • Book (Search OSCAR (by title or author) and LINK+ (by title or author) to verify that this title is not available locally before requesting it.)
    • Book Chapter (Search OSCAR (by title or author) and LINK+ (by title or author) to verify that the title containting this chapter is not available locally before requesting it.)
    • Article (Search the journal title in OSCAR and the Journal Finder to verify that this journal title is not available locally before requesting the article)
  • ​​​​​​After you have verified the item is not available at the SCU libraries or Link+, enter the info for item being requested. Enter all important item information to speed request processing. 
• Click Submit.

After you have placed your request, you will receive an email message with an estimated time of arrival.

Please contact lawill@scu.edu if you need assistance with ILL.