Dalhousie faculty, staff, students

Document Delivery Services and request form for Dal users

To use the document delivery request forms online, you must have a valid library card. This means your DalCard (university ID) must be current and registered with the Dalhousie Libraries.

Document Delivery Services request form

• Access the Dalhousie Document Delivery request form.
  
• Log in to the document delivery form.
  • User Login is the 14-digit library barcode number on your Dalhousie ID card
    
  • Password is the the last four digits of your phone number registered with the Dalhousie Libraries.
  • If you are unable to login to the form please check with the Circulation Staff of any Dalhousie Library.

Charges

There are no document delivery fees for Dalhousie students, faculty and staff. However, a $20.00 non-refundable fee will be charged for any item which is not returned after overdue reminders have been sent. Replacement costs for lost or long overdue items are the responsibility of the requester. Delinquent borrowers may lose their borrowing privileges.

Delivery time

Delivery times vary depending on the type of item you are requesting, the location of the supplying library and the delivery method. If you need an item by a specific date please select a "need by date" on the request form. It is costly to obtain material, so prior to submitting requests please ensure that you will have time to pick up and use any returnable items when they arrive.

• Articles usually take 1 to 3 business days
• Books can take 3 days to 1 month.

Electronic delivery

Articles/copies are delivered electronically to your registered Dalhousie email address. Each email includes a link to the article.

• The link can be opened only once. 
  
• The link will be available for 14 days after receipt. 

Tracking requests

How to track your document delivery request:

• Login to the request form
• Select List All Requests 
• Click on the request you wish to query or use the Query function to search for a request by title, author keyword or request number.
  
• Once you have the request on the screen you will see a grid of information generated from the document delivery system.
  
• Look under the Message heading to see if a book has arrived.
  
• If a book has arrived, the words Document Loaned will appear; for copied material, the word Delivery E-mail or Photocopy - No Scan.
  
• Contact Document Delivery for assistance in tracking the status of your request.

Canceling requests

Login in to the request form and query the requested item. Then:

• Use the Cancel request function at the bottom of the screen.
• Success in cancelling a request depends upon whether the supplying library has processed the request or not. 

Loan periods

Loan periods vary. The lending library determines the length of the loan. Usually, loans last 3 weeks with no renewals.

• Blue wrapper around the item indicates its due date. Do not remove the blue wrapper!

Renewals

If you need an item for longer than the loan time and if the blue wrapper does not indicate "no renewal," you can request a renewal before the due date.

• Requests for renewal can be done online via the request form or via email to the Document Delivery staff at docdel@dal.ca
  
• If you still need the item and it cannot be renewed check with the Document Delivery staff at docdel@dal.ca. It may be possible to get another copy of the item from a different location but the item which is due must be returned.

Pick up and return

All loans must be picked up at a Dalhousie library.

• Default location to pick up document deliveries is the Dalhousie library where you registered your library card.
  
• If you want to pick up documents from another Dalhousie library, select that library from the dropdown Pickup Location box on the request form.
• Return items to any Dalhousie Library by the due date indicated on the blue wrapper. 

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding the submission of document delivery requests, please contact the Circulation, Reference, or Document Delivery staff at any Dalhousie library.

Document Delivery - DAL 11760
Killam Library
Dalhousie University
6225 University Avenue
P.O. Box 15000
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada B3H 4R2
docdel@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-3612
Fax: 902-494-3576

Hours of operation
Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 4:30 pm