University Library > Guides > Featured Resources > Universal Borrowing

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Universal Borrowing (UB)

(The Ultimate Freebie!)


Are your books under wraps? Have you no time to lose?
Dr. Seuss advises UB, it's free to use!

Universal Borrowing (UB) is a FREE service that allows UW-Whitewater students, staff and faculty  to borrow stuff from any UW System library and have it sent to Andersen Library for check out.

Highlights:

  • Fast: most items arrive in 2-4 days
  • Free: Use it before ILLiad, since ILLiad has a minimum $1 charge
  • Email notice sent to your UW-W email account when item arrives in Library
  • Borrow: books, videos, DVDs, tapes, records, microfilm & government documents
  • Some things are NOT available via UB, including: special collections, periodicals (journals, magazines & newspapers), periodical articles, reference & other non-circulating materials

Go straight to the UB portal in the Library Catalog if you are ready to use UB now.

Detailed instructions are in the Universal Borrowing tutorial and in the How to Borrow from Other Libraries guide.

UB requests are made using the UB portal in the Library Catalog. In most cases, materials take 2-4 business days to arrive here and you have 10 days to pick them up. We recommend checking the status of your UB request after a couple of days, using your Personal Record. This may be accessed via the Personal Record button in the Catalog. Once an item has arrived here, you may come in and pick it up, you need not wait to be notified.

You will be notified when materials arrive at the University Library through your UW-W email account. Students: This account cannot be forwarded. Check email here.

For assistance, contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat or in person at the Library's Reference Desk.

Last Revised: MS - 8/7/2007