FAQs

To ensure patron access from off-site locations, CRL member institutions must set their proxy server configurations for CRL resources or use CRL Shibboleth to authenticate using their University login.

All materials digitized from CRL collections can be discovered through CRL’s online catalog, as well as WorldCat and various web-scale library discovery services.

The American Periodicals at the Center for Research Libraries (APCRL) is available for purchase through ProQuest. CRL members may also request free temporary access to APCRL by emailing Access Initiatives.

Please send each article as a separate OCLC request.

We provide article of up to 50 pages in one RAPID article request. For longer articles, please send a digitization request through OCLC not RAPID.

If you are a RapidILL user, you place your article request as normal. If you are a non-RapidILL user, you will place a request through your ILL management system (such as ILLiad, Tipasa, etc). The request will be relayed to a special RAPID pod for CRL members who are not members of RAPID. The request is sent to LHL for filling, courtesy of CRL. If an institution does not have an ILL management system, RapidILL provides access to an online website where you can place your requests.There is absolutely no cost for CRL libraries’ use of this service. There is no cost for members who place their orders to Linda Hall using one of these three methods.

If you are affiliated with a CRL member you can gain access to our material by contacting a librarian at your library or through your library's Interlibrary Loan Services. We also have a small Reading Room which you can use by appointment.

CRL is a private library and provides access to our collection to non-member libraries for a fee. Please email Access Initiatives for more information.

CRL provides digitization as copyright allows. When copyright allows we will digitize for a fee. The fee is based on the amount of material you are requesting. Please consult our lending to non-members page for more information.

No. CRL membership is for libraries, not individuals.

Yes, please see our Global Affiliate Membership page for more information.

CRL membership is restricted to academic libraries. We can supply loans to registered law firm corporate libraries for a fee.

Please see our Become a Member page.

Send an ILL request to us. Include the note "If not owned, please purchase."

The time is takes to acquire an international dissertation varies. It is realistic ito expect at least a month and up to a year.

It is difficult to predict how long it will take us to predict when a particular dissertation will arrive. There are many factors. Availability of an international dissertation depends on the country, a universities practices and tools for sharing dissertations and the author's willingness to share their work. 

Through the Demand Purchase Program CRL acquires materials not held in the collection in one of three areas,  archival materials, newspapers, or international doctoral dissertations. These requests have a maximum cost of $2,000 per patron per year. CRL may decline to purchase materials which are readily available from one or more member libraries.

We can not digitize everything. Digitization depends on copyright, condition of the material and amount of material being requested. Send an email if you have any questions about a title you want us to digitize

When multiple reels are requested we digitize one reel a week until the request is complete. If you request 6 reels, it will be 6 weeks.

CRL provides digital images for research purposes only. We do not provide high resolution images (over 400 dpi). In some cases we will lend the print book so you can create the image you need.

Please email Access Initiatives to find out if the material you would like to have scanned is eligible.

CRL digital files are available for personal educational or research use by students and scholars. CRL does not hold the copyright for archival or published source material held in the collection. Any copyrighted images and texts are not to be reproduced, displayed, broadcast or otherwise distributed without obtaining the expressed, written permission of the copyright owner. After confirming rights with any copyright owner, please also credit the Center for Research Libraries as source of the image.

Most requests are scanned within five business days (for instance requests for a single volume or reel of microfilm). Larger requests for several microfilm reels or volumes will take longer. The time it takes depends on the condition of the material and how many other requests are in our pipeline. 

CRL makes our collection available through OCLC Discovery services, Primo Central Index, ProQuests Summon, EBSCO Discover Services, and local record loading to member's catalogs. Please see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2V-qnKd6vE

There are about 2.3 million records in the CRL catalog. 

CRL's international dissertations collection is cataloged. We list our holdings in OCLC and our local catalog. Member library's may also request record loading of CRL held titles for their catalog. We will attempt to purchase any international dissertations not included in our collection. To request a purchase, send an ILL request with the note "if not owned, please purchase" we can't always find a copy to purchase, but we will try. Note that we do not include Canadian or U.S. dissertations in our collection.

CRL's Topic Guides provide insights on key source materials for research in areas of special interest to CRL libraries.

Reference consultation's help you identify material in our collection that is relevant to your research topic. Anyone can contact CRL's Access Initiatives with a research question. We will help guide research and supply additional finding aids as needed.

To request research assistance, please fill out the form through this link.

Yes. CRL has some uncataloged collections. These include some of our Textbook collection, University and College Catalogs and the U.S. State Documents. If you are looking for material in one of these areas, please consult our online finding aids.

CRL's collection of U.S. state documents contains official publications of from all fifty of the United States. The collection contains materials issued from the earliest period of state or territorial government, through 1950. This collection is uncatalogued and we are currently working on a finding aid. Please email us to get access to this collection.

CRL's textbook collection includes U.S. imprints of primary and secondary schoolbooks, textbooks for post-high school non-degree schools such as business and trade schools, and foreign language grammars and readers through college level. Most holdings were published in the 20th century. The textbooks are partially cataloged. Cataloged textbooks can be found in our catalog. They all have a call number that starts with T-. To find uncatalogued textbooks please email Access Initiatives.

The university and college catalog collection consists of publications issued by colleges, universities, junior colleges, professional schools, and preparatory schools (preparatory schools being inclusive for the 19th century and selective for the 20th century). Publications collected include course catalogs, charters, by-laws, and administrative reports for degree granting, post secondary institutions. Publication dates range from 1820 to 1974. The collection is not cataloged, please email Access Initiatives with questions about this collection.

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology (LHL) have entered into a strategic partnership to preserve and develop historical research collections in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. CRL works with the Linda Hall Library in two areas. One is to deliver scientific journal articles held at Linda Hall to our members. The other is to digitize runs of serials held by both CRL and Linda Hall.

CRL members receive articles within 24 hour-turnaround service provided by RapidILL. 

Please consult with librarians at your school regarding how to compose correct citations. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) publication is also a great resource, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/index.html

CRL appreciates any acknowledgements. Many authors mention us in their forward or introduction.

Information regarding TRAC can be found in this PDF document:

CRL allows researchers to borrow any amount of material requested. This can be 500 reels of microfilm if there is a need. Please note that this material can take up a lot of space in your library.

All requests for collections material go through your library's Interlibrary Loan Department. Please communicate with your librarians when you want an item.

CRL must follow guidelines for digitization that ensure we do not break the law. We will only provide digital copies when the material is out of copyright and in a condition suitable for digitization. 

The loan period is unlimited, but materials must be renewed every six months. Also, they are subject to recall after a six weeks if  a scholar at another CRL institution requests the materials. 

Yes. Global Member libraries have full access to digitized CRL collections, and can pay for shipping of print and microfilm. The loan period is 90 days, renewable on request. Global member libraries are required to pay all shipping costs and any applicable customs fees. 

Please communicate with your university library's ILL Department about this request.

CRL will lend any quantity and type of material in our collection to members. Please note you may want to check if you have sufficient space on your end to store large items.

CRL prefers that borrowed material be returned via UPS to enable tracking. Borrowed material may also be returned by U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Fedex and through the Illinois state library courier service. We ask that material be packed properly to avoid any possible damage as our material is vulnerable to rough conditions.

Yes. If a member institution requests material already on loan we will request its return after the borrower has had access to the materials for three weeks. To submt a recall,submit an ILL request through OCLC with the note "Please recall.

Members may keep materials for as long as they are needed, subject to recall. However the library must submit a renewal request via OCLC (ILLiad) every six months.

The Center's turnaround time averages less than one business day for all routine requests.
 

Space in our Reading Room is limited. To use the Reading Room we ask that you make an appointment at least 3 days prior to your desired visit date. Send an email with the desired date(s) and times, and titles you would like to use. We will not page additional titles on the day of your visit. 
 

Your library can obtain CRL’s records at no cost, on a quarterly schedule. You can load all of the records, just the records for digitized material, or a subset such as records for newspapers. For more information or a test file of CRL records please email us.

The only problem reported by members who currently load records was that the diacritics did not show properly in their local catalogs. In every case, this was corrected by adding Arial Unicode MS font to the beginning of the font group in the style sheets.

Harvard University and University of Florida have loaded all of CRL’s records. Claremont Colleges, Michigan State University, Queens University, University of Virginia, and University of Western Ontario have loaded eresource records. Grinnell College has loaded records for microforms sets.

CRL can customize the file size to member needs. One member loaded all of the records from four files of 300,000 plus records each and another member requested files no bigger than 50,000 and divided by format of material cataloged.
 

The World Newspaper Archive (WNA) is a partnership of CRL member libraries and Readex (a division of NewsBank). There are more than 200 newspapers available electronically on the Readex platform. CRL members support WNA through purchase of individual modules.

A list of the titles is available here, https://www.readex.com/products/world-newspaper-archive#title-list 

Some modules of WNA are open access and so a fee is not required. For modules that require a subscription to the WNA CRL members may purchase additional modules at a reduced rate. Sample pricing schemes and general Terms and Conditions of Use are available to members which you can ask for by contacting us with this form.

• Imperial Russian Newspapers
• Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers
• Late Qing Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers
• Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers 
• Southeast Asian Newspapers
• South Asian Newspapers 
• El Mundo (San Juan, Puerto Rico, est. 1919) 
• Daily Observer (Monrovia, Liberia, est. 1981)