Article Exchange: Secure, copyright-compliant delivery of documents

The Article Exchange document-sharing site provides a single, secure location where lending libraries can place requested documents and library users can retrieve articles or book chapters obtained for them via interlibrary loan. This site adds convenience, security and enhanced copyright compliance to article sharing through interlibrary loan. Article Exchange is accessible to lenders from within the WorldCat Resource Sharing service and through an ILLiad Addon. A cloud-based delivery option, the site can be accessed by staff and users of borrowing libraries, whether or not they use WorldCat Resource Sharing or ILLiad.*

NOTE: Local copyright laws govern interlibrary loan of articles, and may restrict use of this tool. Library staff are responsible for complying with copyright laws in their location.

Article Exchange:

• Is a truly global, document delivery option.  Lending libraries that use WorldCat Resource Sharing or ILLiad can deliver documents through the site regardless of their geographic location.
• Is included in an OCLC Resource Sharing subscription at no additional charge. Users may upload up to 1,000 files per day per authorization. There is no limit to the number of documents a library user can retrieve daily.Eliminates security issues often encountered when documents are transmitted through email. Files up to 60 MB – including high resolution documents – can be placed on the site for pick-up by library users.
• Supports compliance with copyright guidelines with automatic deletion of files. Viewed files are deleted after 5 views and unviewed files are deleted after 30 days.
• Requires no software download or special arrangements for access through a local firewall.
• Provides platform-independent access from PCs, MACs or any operating system.

Article Exchange supports delivery of documents in the following formats: BMP, GIF,J2K, JIF, JFI, JFIF, JP2,JPE, JPEG, JPF, JPM, JPX, JPG, MDI, MJ2, PEG/JFIF, JPEG 2000, PDF, PNG, PSD, TIF, TIFF, TGA, TPIC, WEBP and ZIP.

Use of Article Exchange is included in an OCLC Resource Sharing subscription at no additional charge. Users may upload up to 1,000 files per day per authorization.

WorldCat Resource Sharing users can link to Article Exchange from the upper right side of the staff view and log on with a valid WorldCat Resource Sharing authorization and password.

ILLiad users may access Article Exchange through an ILLiad Addon.

How it works

From WorldCat Resource Sharing, borrowing libraries use the "Borrowing Notes" field of the request form to indicate their desire to retrieve a document from this site. Lending libraries scan documents and upload them to the site for retrieval by users. They have two ways to inform borrowing libraries of a document's availability:

1. The site generates a unique tinyURL and password for each document. Cut and paste the tinyurl and password in the Lending Notes or Alert field of the request form and update the request status to SHPPED.
2. Use the email function within Article Exchange. When they upload the file, the site generates a unique tinyURL and password for each document. An email button is also present so the lender can click on the email button, insert the borrower's email address and send the link and password directly to the borrower.

Once a file has been retrieved, it remains available for 5 views. After the file has been viewed 5 times, it will be removed. A file can be picked up a maximum of five times for each URL/password combination. Files not retrieved remain available for 30 days.

Frequently asked questions

* OCLC is not aware of any library locations that cannot lend or retrieve documents through the Article Exchange site.