Library Resources -- Recommendations and Requests

Document Delivery (DocDel) is a service provided by NTU Library to source for and deliver publications that are not available from NTU Library, such as journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, government documents, and technical reports.

Document Delivery items are generally provided on a single-use basis. Hence, before you submit a DocDel request, you must read and acknowledge that:

1. You will only use this document for non-commercial/research or private study and will not supply a copy of it to any other person.
2. You have not been previously supplied with a copy of this item by an authorized officer of the Library.

Who can request?

NTU faculty, staff, researchers, postgraduate, FYP and URECA students. However, faculty, researchers, and students of NIE and RSIS should contact their respective libraries.

How do I submit a DocDel request?

First, go to OneSearch and "Sign In". There are two ways to submit a DocDel request.

Option 1:

1. From the top navigation menu of OneSearch, locate the form "REQUEST FOR DOCDEL/ILL"
2. Fill in the form according to what you need, click "SEND REQUEST"
3. You will be asked to review the Terms of Use. When you agree, your request will be sent.
4. Go to "My Account", and you will see your request with the status "Created borrowing request".

Option 2:

1. Find the article/book/item that you need in OneSearch. Under "Refine my results", you will need to select "Search beyond Library holdings" to find items that are not available from NTU Library. Such items will show "No Online Access".
2. Click on the title to go into the full record display.
3. Under the section "How to get it", you will see the form "Request for ARTICLE/CHAPTER (Document Delivery) || Request for BOOK (Inter-Library Loan)". Click on the form and the system will auto-fill in the input fields based on what is available from the record.
4. Input the rest of the empty fields, review all the info and click "SEND REQUEST".
5. You will be asked to review the Terms of Use. When you agree, your request will be sent.
6. Go to "My Account", and you will see your request with the status "Created borrowing request".

Help us review your request by providing sufficient info under the mandatory input field "Reason for request". Below are some guiding questions for you to consider. You may want to write them separately before copying-and-pasting into the form:

1. Which research project or course/assignment is this for?
2. How will this be used?
3. How important is this to you, and why so?
4. By when do you need this?
5. Have you looked at what the Library already has or considered alternatives?
6. Have you previewed the resource or examined the table-of-contents (e.g. from Google Books) to judge the relevance?

When can I get my document? How do I track the status of my request?

Turnaround time largely depends on:

• Whether there is sufficient information for us to review the request
• The number of sources available, the ease-of-borrowing from the sources, and the location of those sources
• The speed of our partners' responses
• The nature of the item, e.g. is it something rare or published in limited quantities? Does it require special processing or reproduction?
• The number of active requests we have at any time

For physical books available at local institutions, or journal articles that are available, it may take up to 10 working days for you to get the item. For items that are rare, hard-to-find or with limited availability worldwide, it may take up to 3-6 months---assuming that they can be obtained at a reasonable cost.

To track the status of your request, go to OneSearch and "Sign In". Under "My Account" > "Requests", you will see a list of the active requests that you submitted.

You will see one of the following statuses:

1. Created borrowing request
2. Locate in progress
3. Request sent to partner
4. Physically received by Library (for physical items)
5. Digitally received by Library (for digital items)

For physical items, you will receive a notification via email when the item is ready for you to pick up. For digital items, you will receive an email from us with the link to download the document.

When a request has been completed, it will disappear from your account. Physical items that need to be returned will only be marked as completed when the Library receives the item from you.

You can have up to 12 active requests at any time. When you reach this limit, you will not be able to submit any additional request.

Items are supplied within the constraints of the Copyright Act as well as the licensing terms and conditions of journal subscriptions. NTU theses and project reports are not available for DocDel. Note that selected NTU documents can be found in our open access collections.

Submitting a request

Libraries must email the following details to acquisition@ntu.edu.sg:

1. Name of your institution/library
2. Bibliographic details of the item, e.g. Title, author, year of publication, volume/issue, call number, etc.

Charges

We charge SGD10.00 for up to 10 pages + SGD2.00 for each additional 10 pages; or 1 IFLA voucher for up to 20 pages + ½ IFLA voucher for each additional 20 pages

Payment method

We accept IFLA vouchers or payment by bank draft in Singapore dollars made payable to Nanyang Technological University.