Universal Borrowing

Universal Borrowing is a free service that allows UW-Whitewater students, faculty, and staff to obtain books, VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, government documents, and other items from other UW System libraries. The lending library ultimately determines which materials are lent, but generally reference, periodicals, and special collections items may not be borrowed.

Materials not available from another UW library can be requested from another library using Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Universal Borrowing requests can be made online through the library catalog. In most cases, materials take 2-4 days to arrive. You can track the progress of your UB requests via your personal record and you will be sent an email when the item arrives. Once received, materials are kept at the Circulation Desk for 10 days and are returned if not picked up.

Students may borrow materials for 28 days and renew their items once, unless another patron has requested the item. Staff and Faculty may borrow UB materials for a semester, and are allowed one or two renewals (depending on the lending library). All renewals must be done online by accessing your personal record. Questions related to overdue notices or renewing UB items should be directed to the Circulation Department of the Lending UW Library.

Instructions for submitting UB requests

1. Start at the UW-W Catalog (http://wtwlib.wisconsin.edu/vwebv/selectDatabase).
2. Click the tab for "Search UW Libraries" to enter Universal Borrowing.
4. Select all or specific libraries next to UB Libraries and click "Continue".
5. Enter terms in the search box then select title, etc. and click "Search".
6. Click "Show" to display the results, then select the desired item and click "Make a Request".
7. Enter your ID and last name; and click "Log In"
8. Click on "UB Request".
9. Enter your ID number again for verification and click on "Submit Request". You will see a note if the request was successful.

UW Libraries participating in Universal Borrowing

UW Library	Contact Person
Colleges	list of UW Colleges
Eau Claire-McIntyre Library	John McCrakin	MCCRACJM@uwec.edu; (715)-836-3872
Green Bay- Cofrin Library	Jeff Brunner	brunnerj@uwgb.edu; (920)-465-2385
La Crosse-Murphy Library	Dwayne Webb	webb.dway@uwlax.edu; (608)-785-8524
Madison **	Dineen Grow (Memorial Library)	dgrow@library.wisc.edu; (608)-263-1721
Milwaukee-Golda Meir Library	Aaron Dobbs	dobba@uwm.edu; (414)-229-5410
Oshkosh-Polk Library	Eric Graczkowski	graczkow@uwosh.edu; (920)-424-7314
Parkside University Library	Marilyn Pinzger	marilyn.pinzger@uwp.edu; (262)-595-2166
Platteville-Karmann Library	Vicki Chase	chasev@uwplatt.edu; (608)-342-1679
River Falls-Davee Library	Serena Weber	serena.l.weber@uwrf.edu; (715)-425-3321
Stevens Point-University Library	Andy Pech	apech@uwsp.edu; (715)-346-4214
Stout-University Library	Josh Steans	steansj@uwstout.edu; (715)-232-1112
Superior-Jim Dan Hill	Lori Hughes	lhughes@uwsuper.edu; (715)-394-8130
** Not all UW-Madison Libraries participate in UB lending.