Resources
While we have access to millions of articles, books, and other resources, we don't have access to everything - but we can get you access to just about anything! There are two tools that will be most useful to you when requesting materials beyond LSU Libraries.
Worldcat is a search tool that allows you to search for content at LSU and at other libraries across the world. While we have access to most materials you'll need for your research, we don't have immediate access to everything, but we can get you fairly quick access to just about anything. If you find something useful for your research in Worldcat, you can use the "Request through Interlibrary Loan" button to have articles and books sent to you, with digital materials usually taking 1-2 days to arrive in your inbox.
Discovery is a search aggregator, meaning it searches multiple resources at once. Discovery searches more than 100 databases and the LSU Libraries catalog, so it's a great start for broad searching. You may still wish to search individual databases that are specialized to your area of research as Discovery does not search every database to which we subscribe. Discovery offers full text of most content, but also indexes materials outside of LSU that you can request.
Interlibrary Loan
Even though LSU Libraries offers lots of resources, we don't have access to everything. However, we can get you access to just about anything through interlibrary loan (ILL). If you need an article or book that the library does not have, that cost does not need to come out of your pocket - ILL can get almost anything for you!
Visit the ILL page and watch the video on how to make an account.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL)Interlibrary Loan (ILL) allows students to request materials not owned by LSU Libraries from other library institutions.
If you don't have the full citation in front of you to fill out your ILL request, you can use Discovery or Worldcat to autofill the fields.
In Discovery, you'll find the request feature in the search results, underneath any item we don't have full text access for.
In WorldCat, you'll see markers in your search results marked as "Libraries that own this item," and will either say LSU Libraries or WorldCat Libraries. If you see WorldCat Libraries, you'd need to request that item through ILL. You can find the button by clicking on the item and scrolling down about halfway down the page.