Digital Interlibrary Loan

Small items that are too fragile to circulate on interlibrary loan were formerly supplied through a photocopy. But photocopying often shortens the life of the original. The Library of Congress now scans this type of material and delivers the images via the Web. This makes public domain items widely accessible for current and future requests and contributes to the preservation of the original. Items protected by copyright are not scanned in this program.

If you received a message in response to an interlibrary loan request directing you to check this website for a digital copy of the item you requested, please examine the list of scanned titles by clicking on the appropriate link on the right. Scanned items in this list are linked to PDF files that can be viewed on your web browser, printed, or downloaded. Should you wish more information about the item, a link to its catalog record is also provided.

About This Project

In early 2008, the Digital Interlibrary Loan portion of the larger Library of Congress "Scan-on-Demand" program was terminated. Currently, surrogates are still provided for items that are in the public domain and too fragile to photocopy or lend, but no specific navigation directions to an Interlibrary Loan title list are being provided. The link in the Library of Congress Catalog will direct the user to the accessible PDF.

We invite your comments on the usefulness of these files and the project as a whole. Please send us your thoughts: ILL@loc.gov.