Secure Electronic Delivery (SED)
The British Library offers the Secure Electronic Delivery (SED) service that provides Inter-Library Loan requests for journal articles by e-mail.
If the British Library cannot supply the item at the time of request and we have to obtain the item from elsewhere, the request will be received by post as a photocopy.
Important information
- SED documents are available for 14 days only once they have been downloaded. Requestors have 30 days to download before the link expires.
- Please be aware that SED is only suitable for users who have access to a private computer. If you use one of the public computer labs, or borrow a pool lap top, the SED service is not recommended.
- SED uses Adobe software which is not supported by Apple and so SED is not suitable for Apple devices.
Software requirements for receiving SEDs
To make use of the service, you need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your computer in order to view electronic documents. ADE can only be downloaded to University networked computers by I.T. Administrators. If you are using a personally owned device you can download ADE from the Adobe website.
Once you have installed Adobe Digital Editions please download a test document from British Library Direct.
Requesting SED
If you would like to take advantage of this service please clearly mark your request SED at the top of the Inter-Library Loan request form (Unless SED is specified, the Library will acquire a photocopy of the article).
Delivery of your SED
All SED requests will be sent to your Loughborough University email address. You will receive an email forwarded by us from the British Library which will have the library request number in the header subject line and will contain the hyperlink(s) to your document(s). Click on the link while your computer is connected to the Internet to download the document, but only download if you are using a computer that has Adobe Digital Editions Installed and are ready to use the document. You can only download once and this must be within 30 days of receipt. Access to the document expires after 14 days once downloaded.
Printing SED documents
You can only print one paper copy, from which you may not make further copies. You may not make additional electronic copies or convert the file into any other format.