LSU Libraries is committed to supporting the university’s mission of academic leadership and research excellence. One of the many ways we do this is through Interlibrary Loan (ILL), a vital service that provides faculty with access to resources beyond our collections—no matter how rare or specialized.

This commitment is exemplified by several recipients of the 2025 LSU Faculty Awards, many of whom have made extensive use of ILL to support their research and publishing achievements. For example, Christopher Rovee (English) and John Bardes (History) both published books in 2024, drawing on numerous materials obtained through ILL. In fact, Bardes alone has submitted more than 130 ILL requests, while other award recipients such as Suzette Caleo (Business), Jennifer Scott (Music), and Erin McKinley (Public Health) have also made frequent use of the service. 

“The fact that I can always get pretty much any book that I need, even if it's not located in our own stacks here at LSU, has given me peace of mind as I pursue my research,” said Rovee. “I could not have finished my 2024 monograph, New Critical Nostalgia—the archive for which was predominantly low-circulation critical works from the 1920s and 1930s—without LSU’s ILL service.”

For humanities scholars like Bardes, whose research depends on rare and often undigitized primary sources, ILL is not just helpful—it’s indispensable. “Simply put, ILL transforms any library into every library,” Bardes explained. “It is absolutely invaluable and essential to my research.” He emphasized that “[LSU Libraries] exponentially increases my access to scholarly ideas and sources,” noting that “the vast majority of scholarly material [in the humanities is] not digitized.”

One especially meaningful example from Bardes’ work is a rare anti-slavery newspaper from 1830s Ohio—one of the only surviving sources offering firsthand accounts of the Underground Railroad and Deep South resistance stories that pro-slavery papers refused to cover. “Only one known set of surviving copies exists,” he said. “[LSU Libraries’] staff tracked down a microfilm surrogate of it.”

The impact of ILL goes far beyond access. It enables LSU’s faculty to pursue groundbreaking research, enhances scholarship across disciplines, and plays a crucial role in advancing LSU’s “Scholarship First” agenda.

“ILL is essential to humanities research, full stop,” Bardes concluded. “I ask a lot from LSU Libraries… and I always remain very grateful and humbled by their professionalism and generosity.”