New Interlibrary Loan System

On Tuesday, November 4, we'll be debuting our new InterLibrary Loan system. This system, called ILLiad, will enable you to track your requests in the same way that you can go online to track a package.

The first time you make a request, you'll have to set up an account. You can use any username and password that you like - make it match your Loyola or Notre Dame login, or pick a different combination. You'll also be asked to fill in your contact information, and where you usually like to have the items you request delivered. Once you've provided that information, you won't have to do it again! After you've put in a request, you can log in at any time to check its status.

This new system will also connect with WorldCat and the library databases. When you find an item that LNDL doesn't own, you'll be able to make a request -- without copying & pasting (or retyping) the citation information!

As you get used to the new system, please don't hesitate to contact the Research & Instruction Desk for assistance. You can call us at (410) 617-6802; additional contact information (and hours the Information Desk is open) can be found on the LNDL website.

This new system won't change the way you request a book you find in the library catalog (for example, something owned by Hood or Mount St. Mary's). For those requests, once you're viewing the detailed information about the book, just click the "Request" link on the top of the page.

FREE Film Screening: Brick

Join us for a free screening of "Brick," winner of a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Films are open to students, faculty and staff of Loyola College and College of Notre Dame.

Thursday, October 30 at 7pm*
Sunday, November 2 at 6pm
LNDL Auditorium (Lower Level)

*On Thursday, enjoy FREE soda and popcorn, courtesy of Loyola's Student Activities office.

Hardboiled '30s detective fiction invades a SoCal high school with moderately tasty results in "Brick." At its core, writer-director Rian Johnson's first feature is a stunt, putting Dashiell Hammett-like tough-guy vernacular into the mouths of contempo teens. But the story, while derivative, isn't half bad, and the picture gains in finesse and confidence to the point where Johnson more or less pulls off his peril-fraught exercise. Distinctive lingo provides a talking point, and youthful cast creates possibilities for some theatrical payoff.

--McCarthy, Todd. "Brick." Variety, February 7, 2005.

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lukas Haas. View a trailer on IMDB.

Get started on that term paper!

Even though it's only mid-October, you might want to start thinking about any end-of-semester projects or term papers you have to write. Some professors will force you to start early by asking you to hand in various parts of the paper throughout the semester. But if you have a class where the professor isn't doing that, you might find yourself scrambling for sources in the week before it's due. Taking a few minutes now to get started will help you out in the long run. Even if you only start gathering sources and don't look at them right away, you'll still be a step ahead of the game.



If you're not sure where to start, first check out our Survival Skills Workshops. Otherwise, the best place to start is our subject guides. In the "Find Articles and Other Resources" section on the library homepage, there's a menu labeled "Subject." Pull that down and select the appropriate field for your project. This will take you to the Subject Guide for that discipline, where you'll find information on the best research databases (for articles), reference books, websites and other resources. Depending on exactly what you're researching, you might also want to check some of the other subject guides.

For books, you'll want to search the library catalog. You can do that from the library homepage, in the "Find Books and Media" section. If you find something in our catalog that's at another college, you can have it delivered here by clicking the "request" button at the top of the page.

If you want to expand beyond what's available in our catalog, you can search WorldCat (linked at the bottom of the "Find Books and Media" section of the homepage) and find even more books. If we have a book that's listed in WorldCat, you'll see a link to the library catalog to get the call number. For all the rest, you can put in an Interlibrary Loan request (you can link to the form from the top right of the library homepage) and have the book delivered here.

You can also use Interlibrary Loan for articles -- providing you have the whole citation, and haven't been able to find the article through our "Find E-Journals" search (guess what -- that's also on the library homepage) or in the library catalog. Here's a tutorial on how to check those two places before you submit an Interlibrary Loan request for an article.

Take a look at our How do I? page for quick answers to some basic questions about using LNDL. For more in-depth help, check out our Help Guides. Both of these are linked off of the library homepage as well. And of course, you can always contact the Research Assistance desk for help.