We have received some questions about rejected ILL requests, so I wanted to let people know our colleagues know what is going on.  As some hospital and other non-academic ILL people have noticed, the library at University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler has not been able to fill a substantial number of ILL requests due to license restrictions.  Our recent journal holdings and many older ones are now totally electronic, and the licenses especially for some of the larger databases don't allow interlibrary loan to non-academic or for-profit libraries even if the borrower adheres strictly to copyright law and guidelines, including payment of copyright fees.  We fill what we can, and we do our best to reject any unfillable requests quickly so that they don't languish in Docline long before being allowed to route on.  I wish we could do more.

Note: As indicated by the organization name in my email signature, my institution is now part of the University of Texas at Tyler.  But for purposes such as ILL, purchasing, licenses, and several other functions, my campus is still known as the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler and continues to have its own library.

Tom Craig, MSLS
Director of Library Services, Watson W. Wise Medical Research Library
 
The University of Texas at Tyler 
903-877-2864 office