Skip to Main Content

Anthropology Graduate Student Orientation: Purchase Suggestions & ILL

Suggest a Purchase!

The library is always happy to purchase books and other items upon request to fulfill research needs. 

Submitting a suggestion is as easy as filling out this form!

**Large ticket items will be purchased at the discretion of the subject bibliographer and may require consultation with the department.

Finding Books in Other Libraries?

There are thousands of library catalogs out there and only one of you.

It's time for every researcher's secret weapon:

WorldCat

WorldCat contains more than 125 million records describing items owned by U.S. libraries and libraries around the world.  

These items include books, manuscripts, musical scores, films, newspapers, etc.

Interlibrary Loan & Scan and Deliver at Vanderbilt

What is Interlibrary loan (ILL?)

  • A free service for requesting materials that are not available at Vanderbilt.
  • Facilitates access to books, journal articles, and other items that a library would typically loan like theses and DVDs.

How long does it take?

  • Journal articles: Requests are usually filled in 48 hours, but budget 3 business days to be safe.
  • Books: Requests can take anywhere from 1-2 weeks. Rare or hard to find items may take longer.

Who can make an ILL request?

  • Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students.

How do I submit a request?

  • Login to your ILL account with your VUnet ID and password and select the appropriate request form from the New Requests menu.
  • Or, initiate your request from the library catalog using the link available in the "How to get it" section of the item record.
  • Please provide as much detailed information as possible about the item you are requesting.
    • If available, please provide the following:
      • An ISBN number for book requests
      • A DOI number for journal article requests.

Who do I contact if I have a problem or question about my request?

What is scan and deliver?

  • A free service for requesting book chapter and article scans from print books and journals available at Vanderbilt.
  • You can also request scans for content available on microfilm.
  • Sometimes also called document delivery.

How long does it take?

  • All requests are usually fulfilled within 3 business days.

How do I submit a request?

  • Start your request by searching for your item in the Library Catalog.
    • Don't forget to sign into your Library Account, just look for yellow bar for the sign in link.Yellow bar with sign in link for library account
  • After logging in, you should see a Request chapter/article scan link in the Location Items section of the recordLocation items section of library catalog record with Request chapter/article scan link
  • The Request chapter/article scan link will prompt you to login to your resource sharing account using your VUnet ID.
  • The request form will auto-populate with basic information about the source material. Please supplement additional details
    • Article/ chapter title.
    • Page numbers.
    • Year and volume and issue numbers for journal articles.
    • Please include as much detail as possible to help us locate the correct sections needing to be scanned.

Is there a page limit for scans?

  • Individual requests should be 100 pages or less.
  • Please note that we are unable to scan entire books due to our page limit as well as copyright restrictions.

Who do I contact if I have a problem or question about my request?