Borrowing between UBC Campuses (DocDel)

What is UBC DocDel?

UBC Library Document Delivery (UBC DocDel) is a service that retrieves UBC Library materials for you. This service is offered through the UBC Library Catalogue and available to current UBC students, faculty, staff, and community borrowers. A valid UBC/Library card is required.

Is there a charge for DocDel?

Fees may apply to some document delivery services. Please see below or refer to the fee schedule tab.

UBC faculty, staff, students and hospital staff

The following document delivery services are free for UBC faculty, staff, students and hospital staff:

• Book and article delivery from one UBC Campus to another (UBC Point Grey, UBC Robson Square, UBC Okanagan, UBC teaching hospitals: BMB and BCCW Learning Commons). The pickup location is another UBC library location.
• Book and article delivery from PARC to a UBC library location.
• to UBC undergraduate students and faculty in the Island Medical Program or Northern Medical Program
• to UBC distance education students who are enrolled with the Interlibrary Loans Dept.
• to UBC students, faculty and staff who qualify for Enhanced Library Services (books retrieved for pickup only)

Other services (delivery of material held on the same campus as the pick up location, delivery to an office or off campus location) are charged a fee. Please refer to the fee schedule tab.

Community Borrowers – Individuals (including Alumni)

• Book delivery between UBC Vancouver (UBC Point Grey, UBC Robson Square and UBC teaching hospitals: BMB and BCCW Learning Commons)  and UBC Okanagan is free.
• Book delivery between UBC Point Grey and UBC Robson Square and Biomedical Library (VGH) is charged a fee.
• Book and article delivery from PARC to another UBC library location is free.
• Article delivery between UBC Vancouver (UBC Point Grey, UBC Robson Square and UBC teaching hospitals: BMB and BCCW Learning Commons)  and UBC Okanagan is charged a fee.
• Book and article delivery between UBC Vancouver campuses (UBC Point Grey, UBC Robson Square and UBC teaching hospitals : BMB and BCCW Learning Commons) is charged a fee. Please refer to the fee schedule tab.
• Other services (delivery of material held on the same campus as the pickup location, delivery to an office or off campus location) are charged a fee. Please refer to the fee schedule tab.

Community Borrowers – Organizations, Companies, Institutions

Fees apply to all document delivery services.  Please refer to the fee schedule tab.

Turnaround Time

• Orders received by 5pm are processed by 5pm the next day, Monday through Friday
• Campus mail delivery (including intercampus between UBC Okanagan and UBC Vancouver) takes 2-3 days
• An email will be sent to you when the item is ready for pickup.
• Books will be held for 5 days.

Place a UBC DocDel order

1. 1. Follow these steps to place your order:
      • Go to the UBC Library homepage
      • Click on the “Books and Media” Tab
      • Search for the book or journal/newspaper title
      • Click on the title you are interested in to open up its record
      • Click on ‘Order via UBC Document Delivery‘ in the blue ‘Actions’ box on the top right of the page
      • Follow the instructions on the subsequent page to complete the process
      • When prompted, you can use either your campus wide login or your UBC Library card barcode and pin.

2. The following items are not available via document deliver

• Items out on loan, in bindery, etc (order at a later date)
• Full issues of journals (except from PARC)
• Items in Rare Books & Special Collections, Reference, Course Reserve, and other similar collections (some copying might be possible)
• Requests that violate the Canadian Copyright Act.

Track the status of your UBC DocDel order

Log into the Document Delivery and Interlibrary Loan system with your CWL or UBC/Library card Barcode and PIN to track your requests at https://ill-docdel.library.ubc.ca

Fees for all other UBC DocDel Requests:

Contact Information

For additional information and assistance, please contact: