FAQ
Interlibrary loans for Library users
How long will I have to wait to receive the materials?
The answer depends on the type of materials, the sending library and postal services. You will usually receive photocopied articles within 12-24 hours and books within 4-10 business days.
When you order your materials, we will give you an approximate waiting time.
Unexpected delays and mistakes while sending materials are extremely rare, but possible.
E.g. incorrectly addressed book > is sent to the wrong address > is returned to the sender (the sending and receiving library acknowledge the mistake) > the book is resent = double the amount of time needed to deliver the materials
How much do interlibrary loans cost?
Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has set flat fees for ordering materials through the German Subito service.
This service enables us to avoid mistakes and acquire most materials in a swift fashion.
The flat fee a user is charged covers the expenses of our Subito account, a part of banking fees charged in the process of paying for orders and the postage on the return of the materials.
An electronic copy of an article costs 50 kunas while borrowing a book costs 170 kunas.
If the materials can only be acquired from other libraries, the cost of a copy of an article does not change, while the cost of borrowing books varies from 100 to 200 kuna, depending on the price set by the sending library.
Before ordering, the user will be informed about the expected price.
Why are the prices so high?
Borrowing books is rather expensive because we have to pay postage twice.
You can find the rates of postal services on the official web page of the Croatian Post (Hrvatska pošta).
Few libraries charge the interlibrary loans service as such. Most libraries charge you (only) for the postage they have to pay.
Useful tips!
Before ordering books through the interlibrary loans service, we recommend checking first whether the book can be bought at a cheaper price than the cost of the interlibrary loans service.
The best and most frequently used online bookstores:
Amazon & AbeBooks – for printed books:
GoogleBooks – a Google database of digitalised materials, a (smaller) part of these materials is made available to the public
BookFinder – a search engine you can use to browse a number of online bookstores simultaneously
Before ordering articles, we recommend checking first whether you can acquire these articles through databases that are either publicly available or are available to Croatian academia.
Please use this search engine to browse available e-journals.
Is it possible to order materials from the British Library?
Unfortunately, we do not order materials from the British Library. The process of ordering is quite complex and there is not a great demand for British Library materials.
If the materials you need can only be acquired through the British Library, you can contact the Interlibrary loans service of the National and University Library in Zagreb.
Is it possible to order materials from the National and University Library in Zagreb and from Zagreb City Libraries?
It is possible to order materials from the National and University Library in Zagreb if they are not available in other libraries, e.g. Zagreb City Libraries
We do not order materials from Zagreb City Libraries because everyone can become a member of their libraries at a cheap price.
Is it possible to acquire foreign masters and doctoral theses?
Master’s and doctoral theses are the types of materials that are very hard to acquire. Usually, if you even find a bibliographic record of the thesis, it is not possible to acquire it.
It is possible, however, to acquire the theses available through the German Subito service (that contains theses from outside of the German-speaking countries also). These theses can easily be acquired through this service just like any book.
You can acquire some British theses through the British Library, but you should contact the National and University Library in Zagreb (please refer to the question “Is it possible to order materials from the British Library?”).
If you need doctoral and master’s theses from the USA, you can only acquire those that have been photocopied and can be found either on publicly available or paid databases.
Is it possible to acquire materials from the USA?
Unfortunately, it often is not. American libraries usually do not offer interlibrary loans services to European libraries
and, in most cases, postage rates are higher than the cost of buying books on online bookstores.
Sometimes, it is possible to order, for example, a scan of a certain article or a chapter from smaller libraries.
How do you decide where will you acquire materials from?
The decision on where we will try to acquire certain materials is based on the judgement of a librarian who will try to provide the user with the best possible service.
The quality criterion consists of a few elements: the accuracy and speed of delivery, material quality (usually concerning electronic documents) and the price.
Useful tips!
You can find approximate information on which library has the materials needed in the following catalogues:
Catalogues of all national libraries in the world
Catalogue of the National and University Library in Zagreb – if the materials are not listed in the online catalogue, we recommend checking the digitalised old card catalogues as well.
Joint catalogue of Croatian libraries
Joint catalogue of Serbian libraries
Joint catalogue of Slovenian libraries
Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog – a joint catalogue consolidating catalogues of libraries from German speaking area (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), catalogues of the most important national libraries in the world and the catalogues of the largest online bookstores (AbeBooks, Amazon and others)
WorldCat – a joint catalogue of a number of European and American libraries
Can users of the Library obtain electronic copies of articles or chapters from the Library’s holdings?
Yes, they can. Please check our scan-on-demand service.
Interlibrary loans for other libraries
How can we order materials from your Library through the interlibrary loans service?
You can simply send us an e-mail with all the relevant information on the materials needed and your library information at mkp@ffzg.hr.
How do you deliver materials to other libraries?
Our colleagues from other libraries in Zagreb can obtain printed materials at the main reference desk on the ground floor of the Library (within the Library’s opening hours, business days 8 AM – 8 PM), while other libraries will receive their materials by post.
Why were some materials listed in the catalogue as available when, in fact, they were not?
The Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is specific not only for its wide range of available materials but also for the origin of every single library collection as each collection was a separate library with its own practice until March 2009.
Because of this, it is possible that the status of the materials in the catalogue is incorrect. There is usually no doubt that the materials are available if they are listed as “dostupno” (available) and have a call number in the form of CA01.05 MAR s, EF07 SIM o-1997, PB 123456 or any similar form.
For any other materials listed as “dostupno”, only a librarian can advise you about the correct availability status of the materials as some books may be loaned out on old card catalogues, and some may be used by users in the reading rooms or may be lost.