To get you the materials you need faster, last fall we debuted a service called BorrowDirect. This 11-school consortium offers direct access to the more than 50 million volumes from the Ivies plus Chicago and MIT, providing a great alternative to recall wars and waiting for interlibrary loans. Material requested through BorrowDirect is delivered in just 3-6 business days!
Now we’ve taken steps to integrate this popular service into the places you already search, namely Catalyst and WorldCat. In the library catalog, the BorrowDirect option will appear when an item is checked out or on reserve. You’ll also have the opportunity to request a physical copy if our only format is electronic. In WorldCat, BorrowDirect will show under these same conditions and also when you seek an item that’s not in our collection.
So for example, if you searched the library catalog for Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, you’ll now get the option to request a copy through BorrowDirect since all our copies are currently on reserve.
The same would be true if you used WorldCat—when you click the Find It button, you’ll see the BorrowDirect option. The link to check BorrowDirect will automatically run a search for the item you’re seeking.
The integration will remain in beta for the next two weeks while we make sure it’s working as expected. We’ll roll out additional enhancements as they become available. Let us know what you think of the integration in the comments below!