Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Policy

The UMGC Library provides document delivery services to current UMGC students, faculty, and staff in the United States and overseas. The Library brands these services as DocumentExpress. To be eligible to use the Library's DocumentExpress service, one must be currently engaged in a course or employed by UMGC, i.e., a student must be currently participating in at least one UMGC course; a faculty member must be teaching at least one course in the current semester or term; and a staff member must be currently employed by UMGC. 

• Cost: UMGC students, faculty, and staff may use the Library’s DocumentExpress service free of charge. As of December 2025, physical books are no longer available through DocumentExpress. For books obtained prior to December 2025, individuals are held responsible for returning loaned books by the due date. If those books are not returned within three (3) weeks of the due date, an individual may be liable for a $50.00 to $500.00 replacement fee per item charged by UMGC on behalf of the lending library.
• Services: The Library provides document delivery services to all current UMGC students, faculty, and staff regardless of residency location.
• Misuse: DocumentExpress is a service available to UMGC students, faculty, and staff as a privilege. The Library reserves the right to curtail or terminate an individual’s DocumentExpress privilege in certain circumstances, e.g., efforts to circumvent clauses in the Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Policy, and abuse of the privilege for personal advantage to the detriment of the larger UMGC community.
• Summary of ILL service by patron type

  Patron	Eligibility	Privileges
  Students	Must be currently registered in a UMGC class	20 electronic article or book chapter requests per semester
  Faculty	Must be currently teaching a UMGC class	Unlimited number of electronic article or book chapter requests
  Staff	Must be a currently employed UMGC staff member	Unlimited number of electronic article or book chapter requests for items related to work
  Alumni	Not eligible	N/A

• ILL and document delivery requests are accepted via the DocumentExpress interface at this URL: https://illiad.umgc.edu/Illiad/logon.html and from within the Library’s collection of online databases via the Find it link in OneSearch.
• Delivery and Return of ILL and Document Delivery Materials
  • Electronic document delivery: Materials delivered via document delivery are not subject to return and may be kept by the requestor in digital or paper format. Document delivery materials will be deleted from individual DocumentExpress accounts after twenty-one days of availability and are not retrievable after this time lapses.
  • Books: Prior to December 2025, the Library delivered ILL books via UPS to current students, faculty, and staff living within the continental United States (or to faculty in AK or HI) upon request. UPS return labels are included in the initial shipment. Patrons should use these labels to return materials to the Library.
  • Delivery turnaround times: Requests for journal articles and book chapters are generally filled within five business days, although requests for rare or hard-to-find items may take longer to fill. Speed of delivery for both ILL and document delivery depend in large part upon the operational capabilities of the loaning libraries.

• The Library adheres to Title 17 of the US Code, the CONTU Guidelines and the Universal Copyright and Berne Conventions.
• Materials Available to Borrowing Libraries
  • Copies of articles from periodicals.
  • Copies of archival material, theses, and dissertations may be made available on a case-by-case basis.
• Process Information for Potential Borrowing Libraries
  • All requests for materials should be made via OCLC. The Library may consider requests received via mail, electronic mail, telephone, or fax if unusual circumstances exist.
  • UMGC does not charge borrowing libraries for the use of its materials.
  • UMGC does not charge late fees.
  • All photocopy and electronic materials sent to borrowing libraries need not be returned to UMGC unless specifically stated.