Is the book you want checked out? Do you need materials that aren’t available at the MIT Libraries? There is a new way for you to request materials from other area libraries and the items will be shipped direct to an MIT Library for you to pick up.

MIT’s WorldCat allows you to simultaneously search library catalogs of all the Boston Library Consortium member libraries. If the MIT Libraries do not own the book or our copy is not available, you may request the item in MIT’s WorldCat. The item will usually be available within 3 business days.

If a BLC Library cannot fill the request, it will automatically forward to MIT’s Interlibrary Borrowing department for fulfillment. See MIT’s WorldCat FAQ for more details or jump right in and try it out.

And… Stay tuned for a new service that’s in development. Like WorldCat requesting, you will be able to request books not available at MIT. The new service, Borrow Direct, will greatly expand the universe of materials available to MIT community members by allowing online requests for materials at several Ivy League universities, including: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale. See our previous news article for more details.