The libraries of Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University have announced the expansion of Borrow Direct to include the Harvard Library and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries as full partners with services to begin in 2011.
Borrow Direct is an expedited delivery system for books (primarily monographs) between and among the participating libraries. It provides access to and sharing of a collection of nearly 50 million items across the partnership. Faculty, students, and staff of Borrow Direct institutions can request circulating materials directly from the library where they are held, without the need for library staff to intervene in the process. The materials are then delivered to the borrowing patron’s library via commercial courier services within several business days. Borrow Direct has successfully shared approximately 1 million items across the partnership since it was initiated in 1999.
MIT Libraries’ extensive collections in science, math, and engineering, as well as rich specialised collections in a variety of other subjects, will now be accessible through Borrow Direct. Together, Harvard and MIT will reportedly add nearly 20 million monographs to the partnership.
