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United States National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

Fact Sheet
Loansome Doc®

Loansome Doc enables PubMed® and NLM Gateway users to order documents found in MEDLINE®. It is available to users in the U.S. and internationally. A user can order articles from a list of citations retrieved from PubMed and the NLM Gateway by sending requests to a library for the full-text documents.

How to Register:

  1. Identify an "Ordering Library"

    1. Loansome Doc Users in the U.S.

      Before an order can be placed, and before a user can fill out the registration page, all Loansome Doc users must first establish an agreement with a medical library or libraries that use DOCLINE® (NLM's automated interlibrary loan request and referral system). That library is referred to as the user's "Ordering Library." Health professionals in the U.S. who are currently affiliated with a medical library should contact that library first. Unaffiliated health professionals, or users who are unsure about which library to contact, may obtain assistance from the Regional Medical Library (RML) in their area by calling 1-800-338-RMLS (7657), Monday-Friday, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM in all time zones.

    2. Loansome Doc Users Outside of the United States

      International users must identify an "Ordering Library" before filling out the registration page. To find an Ordering Library, contact a medical library in your country, or the one nearest your area. The library must be on NLM's DOCLINE system. There are many international health libraries that provide document delivery to users in their countries and within their area of the world, and many of them are on DOCLINE. Some U.S. health libraries also serve international users, as does CISTI, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. Once you have established a service agreement you may proceed to fill in the registration page.

  2. Register for Loansome Doc

    Once you have contacted your medical library or to search for a document delivery provider, go to Loansome Doc. During the registration process, you will create a user account with your name, address, email, and ordering preference.

    To find Loansome Doc from PubMed, select "Order Documents" from the left side of the screen, or from the NLM Gateway, select "Ordering Info" from the left side of the screen.

    Additional registration information for Loansome Doc may be found at How do I register for Loansome Doc?

Loansome Doc Ordering

Outlined below are the steps involved in a Loansome Doc request starting with a PubMed search and ending with delivery of a copy of the requested document.

  1. Perform a literature search using PubMed.
  2. Click the check box to the left of the articles you want to order.
  3. From PubMed select 'Send to Order' from the pull down menu, or temporarily save your selections to the Clipboard by selecting 'Send to Clipboard' from the pull down menu on the PubMed features bar.
  4. Enter your Email Address and Password.
  5. Review orders. Sort citations and select alternate providing library, if desired.
  6. Deselect the check next to articles you do not wish to order.
  7. Click 'Proceed to Delivery Options' button.
  8. Review Delivery Options and check the Copyright Compliance box.
  9. Click the 'Continue' button.
  10. Review order, then click 'Send Order'.
  11. Your orders are electronically sent to your Ordering Library.
  12. Staff at the Ordering Library are notified of pending Loansome Doc requests. The requests are printed, processed, and updated as filled or not filled.

Ordering documents via the NLM Gateway

  1. Perform a search using the NLM Gateway.
  2. Select the desired citations by clicking the check box to the left of each citation.
  3. When you have finished marking your selections, click on the "Order Documents" button, or save your selections to the Locker by clicking "Put in Locker" on the Gateway Results page.
  4. A Document Ordering page will be displayed. Review your choices and select the "Order Documents" button.
  5. The Loansome Doc Ordering page will open in a separate browser window. Enter your Email Address and password.
  6. Select "Order Documents" from the drop-down selection box. Click Go.
  7. Review orders and delivery information.
  8. Click "Send Order" button.
  9. Your orders are electronically sent to your Ordering Library.
  10. Staff at the Ordering Library are notified of pending Loansome Doc requests. The requests are printed, processed, and updated as filled or not filled.

Checking the Status of your Request

You may view the status of you Loansome Doc orders immediately after an order is sent. The Status page displays the request number, request date, the status of the order, status date, author(s), title of the article, citation, and the PMID (PubMed ID number).

To check the status of an order, go to Loansome Doc.

There are six possible Loansome Doc order status phrases:

  1. Pending - Not viewed by library
  2. Pending - Received by library
  3. Pending - Sent to another library
  4. Filled
  5. Could not be filled
  6. Could not be filled - Request Expired.

Costs

NLM does not charge for the use of the Loansome Doc software. Charges for copies of articles or other services will vary from library to library. Please contact your ordering library with any questions about services and fees.

Questions

Email questions about Loansome Doc service to: custserv@nlm.nih.gov

A complete list of NLM Factsheets is available at:
(alphabetical list)http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/factsheets.html
(subject list)http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/factsubj.html

Or write to:

FACT SHEETS
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894

Phone: (301) 496-6308
Fax: (301) 496-4450
email: publicinfo@nlm.nih.gov

Last reviewed: 23 August 2007
Last updated: 23 August 2007
First published: 10 September 2002
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanent: Stable Content