Details about the Document Delivery Service
The document delivery system at Radford University is designed to look and act just like the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system, in fact the two systems use the exact same forms and emails. If you want an article, you only have to fill out an article request form and the ILL staff will provide it for you. You don't have to search the McConnell Library holdings and you don't need to figure out who owns an item, you just log into ILLiad and fill out an article request form and we do the rest! Of course, if you know that McConnell Library owns an item you are requesting, it is helpful and time saving for us if you indicate that in the Notes field of your request.
Once you fill in and submit your request, we carry out our normal request screening process and during the ordering phase we determine if an item should be filled using interlibrary loan or document delivery. If it's something we can fill as a document delivery item, we go to the shelf and pull the item, scan it and create a .pdf file with Adobe Acrobat, save that file on our server and then send you an ILLiad generated note telling you what the file is and where to obtain it. At that time you are free to save the file or print it. These .pdf files are kept on our server for one month and then deleted.
Can I get books through document delivery?
At the present time, only copies of articles (and sometimes book chapters) can be obtained through document delivery.
I got an email from you saying my article is in but it's not at the circulation desk.
The emails we send out tell you that the article you requested has been delivered electronically to your ILLiad account, and there are instructions in the email about how to access the article. There are no paper copies of document delivery items, only electronic copies.
I'm having trouble opening the article you sent me.
If you cannot open the file we direct you to, one of the first things to check on is whether or not you have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your computer. Without the free reader, you cannot open the file. If you find that you do have the reader and still cannot open the file, another common problem is the limitations of phone modems. Those using phone modems will have to be very patient while the file downloads as the .pdf is a large file. If you just cannot open the file, call or email the ILL office and we will try to assist you.
The last time I logged into my account there were several articles in there, but now they're gone!
In general, we check our .pdf drive and delete items that have been there for more than one month. For this reason you should print or save items we deliver to you at some point relatively soon after you get them. If we happen to clean out the drive before you have formally deleted the .pdf yourself, you will have what is basically a dead link in your account. If you find you have these and if they bother you, please feel free to contact us with a list of the transaction numbers of these dead links and we will clean up your account on our end.
I hit the delete button instead of the button that opens the .pdf. Can I get another copy?
Sometimes we can restore an article for you and fix the link when this happens. If you happen to accidentally delete an article contact us and we will either restore the link or re-process the request.
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