University of Michigan Library
University of Michigan Library

Scans

Request digital scans of small portions of our physical items such as book chapters and journal articles. This service is available to faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, staff, and people who’ve obtained “proxy” privileges to borrow on behalf of faculty. 

Requests are typically processed within 1–4 business days and are delivered electronically.

How to place a request

There are a few ways to place a scan request:

  • Log in directly via ILLiad and fill out a request form for an article or book chapter
  • Use the Get This link in Library Search and select request to have a small portion scanned 
  • Use the MGet It link or button in library databases and choose request to have a copy delivered

Using your scans

Scans are stored on our servers for a limited time. You have 14 days to access and download your PDF, or 5 views total, whichever comes first.

Please contact the Interlibrary Loan office if you:

  • Receive an incomplete, incorrect or unreadable scan 
  • Need publication or preservation-quality scans
  • Have a qualifying disability and need an accessible PDF  

Urgent patient care requests

Rush service is available to Michigan Medicine staff needing to place an urgent patient care request. This service is only for articles that are needed due to a clinical emergency or to assist patients currently under care. 

Immediately after submitting an urgent patient request, please call us at 734-764-8584 to expedite it. We attempt to fill these requests within 2 hours. If our office is closed, leave a voicemail message with your uniqname and transaction number and it will be handled as soon as we open. 

Microform requests

Microform readers and scanners are available in multiple library locations for your use.

We may be able to provide copying from our Serials and Microforms Services collection. Contact us at 734-764-8584 for more information. Please have your transaction number available. 

Copyright

We evaluate requests on a case-by-case basis based on our rights under copyright law.

If you request a larger portion of the source material than we can scan, we will refer you to our other item pick up or delivery services. You can also recommend a purchase for the library collection.

We are not able to create digital scans of personal copies.

The Copyright Office provides information, resources, workshops, and consultations to help you make decisions about sharing and using copyrighted material in your research, learning, and teaching.