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ASU Online Library Guide

Borrowing and How it Works

In this section, we will review borrowing, requesting, returning, and renewing both digital and physical materials. We will also cover the policies for these services.

There are few different methods in which you can receive materials from the ASU Library. You can borrow books from the library and have them shipped to you*, or you can have it digitally sent to you. If ASU does not have the material available, ASU can lend from partner libraries for you. These can also be mailed or sent digitally. We will start with the accounts you will use to manage the materials borrowed and requested, then the process of requesting the materials.

*If you live in Maricopa County, books will not be delivered to you. You will have to arrange to pick it up at one of the ASU campus libraries.

Your Library Accounts

You have accounts with ASU Library that allow you to manage checked out items, item requests, document deliveries, etc.

On the ASU Library Homepage, lib.asu.edu, the black bar at the top has a tab labelled 'Accounts.' This is where you can add access your My Library Account and My ILLiad Account.

My Library Account

My ILLiad Account

  • Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery:
    • PDFs of journal articles & book chapters;
    • Access to materials not available at ASU
  • Policies depends on the library from which your borrowed

Borrowing, Returning, and Requesting Materials

As an online student, you are able to request materials from ASU Library, request from an external library through Interlibrary Loan, or request an article/chapter scan from a physical material that ASU Library owns. To request, use the Library One Search on the Library homepage to locate the material of interest. Once you select the record, there will be a button to Request ASU Copy. Below is an example of where this would be located in the record.
(For materials available through Interlibrary Loan or able to be digitized from ASU Library's collections, you will select Request Options instead of Request ASU Copy).


Image of a book record with Request ASU Copy link circled.


Please review the ASU's Borrowing Loan Policy prior to borrowing any materials.

FOR ALL STUDENTS IN MARICOPA COUNTY: Home delivery is not available. You are required to come to the library and do curbside pick-up. Here is more information about returning materials to the ASU Campus.


As an ASU student, you may also borrow materials from university libraries that belong to the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA). Click here to view a list of GWLA member libraries and how to plan your visit.

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Click here to go to the e-Books page to learn more about how to access and use the electronic books, textbooks, and reference books available.

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.