Princeton University 

Princeton University Library 

Princeton University Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services
 
Article Express

Monday - Friday, 8:30 - 4:30
Phone: (609) 258-7469
Firestone Library A-8-H
Email: docdel@princeton.edu
Eligible users 
Materials available 
Delivery timeframe 
More Information 
Contact Us

Interlibrary Services

Monday - Friday, 8:30 - 5:00
Phone: (609) 258-3272
Firestone Library A-7-E
Email: ilsborr@princeton.edu
Eligible users 
Urgent requests 
More Information 
Contact Us 
 
 
East Asian Library Users 

Monday - Friday, 8:30 - 5:00
Phone: (609) 258-3182
East Asian Library
Email: gestcirc@princeton.edu
 
 
 

General Information on Article Express:

Article Express is a service designed to support the teaching and professional research of Princeton faculty.

. Return to:
Interlibrary Loan / Document Delivery Services
First Time Users 

Eligible users

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Article Express is currently available only to
  • Faculty
  • Visiting Faculty
  • Visting Lecturer
  • Post-Doctoral Fellow - Teaching
  • Research Scholars
  • Senior Research Scholars
  • Senior Professional Specialists

Please note:

Professional, research, and technical staff, graduate students and undergraduates may request articles which are not available at Princeton through the Interlibrary Loan Service.

If you have questions about your eligibility, please contact Document Delivery at 609-258-7469 or docdel@princeton.edu

 

 Materials available for request 

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Journal articles, chapters or selections from books, papers from conference proceedings, and newspaper articles are available to faculty through Article Express.

 

 Delivery timeframe

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In most cases material is received within 24-48 hours, but some requests may take longer.

The Document Delivery staff assumes that the material is needed as soon as possible and makes every effort to obtain the material in the shortest time possible.

 

Urgent requests and Special Services

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We handle all incoming Article Express requests in an urgent manner, so there is no “rush” status for the service. At this time, we are not equipped to supply higher quality documents or special requests. We do our best to supply materials that are clean and cropped, but since we rely on documents scanned by outside providers in many cases, this is not always possible in order to get the documents out to you as quickly as possible.

 

Username and password

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In the online request system, each user must select a username and password, which provide protected access to information about one’s outstanding and completed requests. It also allows Document Delivery staff to deliver article-length material electronically to the requester’s desktop. A user may update his/her registration information at any time, keeping Document Delivery staff up-to-date on changes in one’s campus address or delivery preferences.

One’s username and password can be anything one chooses. Please ensure that only the user knows the selected password.

In the event that you forget your password, go to Forgot Password. You can also contact Document Delivery at Firestone (258-7469 or docdel@princeton.edu). We can reset a password fairly quickly, usually, and the password can be changed the next time one logs into the system.

If an individual is working for a professor, please submit requests in the professor's name. For this purpose the professor will need to share his/her username and password with the requester.

 

Submitting a request

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Requests may be submitted online using the Journal Article, Book Chapter or other relevant request form. Reference staff in Firestone or any branch library can assist you in using the online request system. There is to be only one article or book chapter per request, therefore only the first article or book section will be supplied if more than one article/chapter is requested. Statistical analyses, copyright, and commercial vendor requirements make this policy necessary.

 

Publication Information

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Accurate and complete publication information will enable Document Delivery staff to process requests in the shortest possible time. For article citation verification, use one of the databases or reference sources on the Library’s Articles and Databases page. For other materials, such as books and newspapers, consult WorldCat .

If a citation is incomplete or otherwise inaccurate, Document Delivery staff will make a reasonable effort to locate the material; this may include contacting the patron via e-mail for additional information. If unable to locate the item, Interlibrary Services staff will attempt to verify and, if unable to do so, make a determination to cancel the request.

 

Electronic delivery

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Electronic delivery is now an option for article-length material available to users of the online request service. Be sure to indicate that you prefer electronic delivery when registering for the service if you wish to take advantage of this method of delivery.

When a requested article is located by the Document Delivery staff, the document is converted to a PDF format and sent to a server. The user will be notified by email that the article is available. To retrieve the article, the user needs to logon using the previously registered username and password. The user can then click on "View Electronically Received Articles" to see the full text of the document.

 

Checking on the status of requests

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Using the online request service you can check on the status of individual requests at any time by logging in to the system under your user name and password and navigating down the menu page to "Reviewing requests."

 

Length of time articles are available

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Articles remain available for 21 days. You may continue to view an article during this period of time, print it, or download it to your own computer. When you are finished using the article, you can choose to delete it, but please do not delete it if you anticipate needing to access it prior to the end of the 21 days.

 

 Copyright Statement and Costs

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When you register as a new user of the Article Express or Interlibrary Loan service, you will be asked to read and accept the copyright statement before proceeding. All copyright costs will be covered by the Article Express Service.

 

Items Available Electronically at Princeton

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The Princeton Library subscribes to a large number of subscription databases, including full-text bibliographic resources (journals and articles) and electronic books. In most cases, a link will be provided directly within the bibliographic record in the library’s catalog to these resources. Please familiarize yourself with Princeton’s electronic offerings by visiting the library’s website, specifically the Articles & Databases page, E-Journals, Newspapers, and E-Books. If there are problems accessing or using such resources, please visit a Princeton Library reference desk, consult Ask a Librarian, or see Connecting from Off-Campus information.

 

Limits on number of requests

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Although we have not set a limit on the number of requests one may submit at once via the Article Express service, we strongly suggest that no more than 10 requests are submitted per day. The service is heavily-used, and our goal is to fill the priority requests of all those who submitted them within 24-48 hours. If more than 10 requests are submitted per day, the turnaround time may exceed 48 hours so as to fill requests for as many different patrons as possible.

Please also be considerate when requesting items to scan that are in one’s possession, either owned by or charged out to you, so as to limit the use of the service in order to create a personal “electronic library.” Article Express staff and hardware resources are not unlimited. Also, please prevent duplication of effort by having both Article Express and Reserve Departments scan the same materials.

 

Requesting material that Princeton owns

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You may request article-length material via Article Express regardless of whether it is available in Princeton’s collections or not. The only criterion required is that you need the material. Article Express staff will not provide a copy of an entire book, however, and we urge patrons not to submit a request for an article or chapter that exceeds 50 scanned pages. Also, please limit requests, if possible, to no more than 3 chapters from the same book or 3 articles from the same journal issue. In the case of monograph requests, we have found that it is more advantageous for the patron to check out the book when more than 50 pages or 3 chapters are needed. Our document suppliers outside of Princeton may not fulfill requests for more than 3 articles/chapters per issue/book.

Note: Branch library staff processing Article Express requests may impose different guidelines than those established in the Firestone office, as far as what may be scanned from Princeton-owned books and journals held by branch libraries.

 

Difficult to obtain material

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We expect to obtain the majority of articles from Princeton’s print collections, our electronic collections, or from commercial document delivery suppliers. We may in some cases need to go to other institution’s collections, which may involve forwarding your request to Interlibrary Services and which will require additional time for processing. We will advise you, in most cases, if the request will take longer than 48 hours to arrive.

 

 Security issues on public workstations

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Web browsers cache information and create a history file on public workstations. This would permit subsequent users of a workstation to access the system under another’s name using the browser's Back button to recall a page from the cache, or by finding a page with one’s personal information in the browser's history file. If one is concerned about the security of one’s interlibrary loan and document delivery requests, any of the following measures may be taken:

1. Access the Interlibrary Loan / Document Delivery system only from one’s personal computer or an otherwise secure workstation.

2. When using a public access workstation: Exit from the Web browser before leaving the workstation. This prevents someone else from clicking on the Back button and accessing the pages that a previous user was working with.

 

Other questions?

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Other Questions? Please contact Document Delivery staff in Firestone at 609-258-7469 or docdel@princeton.edu, or the campus library handling the request. Please note: multiple branch libraries outside of Firestone handle Article Express requests, based on the requester’s chosen delivery site and/or where the material resides.

 

Return to:
Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services
First Time User Page

 

© 2001 Princeton University Library
Updated 1/18/10