Document Delivery and Rush Requests
Document Delivery
Knox has the ability to purchase journal articles, often at reduced rates, when Interlibrary loan cannot be used to obtain the articles. This is more cost effective than subscribing to high cost individual titles. This way patrons are not limited to a smaller subset of high priced journals, but can opt for articles from a larger collection of journals.
Rush Requests: Items needed immediately
Sometimes you need something fast.
Journal Articles - or Book Chapters - Most of these requests come in 24 hours. However, sometimes even that is too long. Perhaps you are submitting a grant proposal, and discover a study you need to reference.
If you have a rush request for an article that you need immediately, it is usually possible to expedite your request. This service does cost the college, and so we ask that you only use it when you have a truly critical need related to your teaching or research.
In these cases, email your liaison and the reference email (reference@knox.edu) in case your liaison is not available. Provider the citation information for the article you need. If the article is available for purchase as a PDF, we will buy it on the spot and send you the PDF. If an article is not available for online purchase, we will contact a library that owns the title and get them to email it to us that day.
Books - I-Share delivers books in an average of 2-3 days. Interlibrary loan takes an average of 7-10 days. If you need a book more quickly than that, purchase is often the only way. Most books can be purchased with free 2 day delivery, or 1 day delivery at a modest cost.
If you need an entire book more quickly than you can get it via I-Share, and the book is something appropriate for our collection, please send an email - indicating that you need 2 day or overnight delivery to liborders@knox.edu.
If the book is really not something good for our collection - no one else needs it but you - and it is under $50 we will just buy it for you, but not retain it. If it is only useful to you, but is over $50, we'd ask that you use research funds, department funds, or request special funds from the Dean to purchase it. We can do the purchasing to get our discounts and cheaper fast delivery - but you'll need to provide us with an account #. Please contact your Liaison if you want a book that is not for our collection.