Scan-to-PDF is a digital document delivery service for articles and chapters from print collections housed in our off-site library storage facilities (Stanford Auxiliary Libraries 1&2, SAL3, and SAL-Newark). This service is available to current Stanford faculty, staff, students, postdocs, and University visiting scholars.

It is easy to request a PDF: find the item in Searchworks, click the request button, and choose the Scan-to-PDF option. You'll then receive an email from us with a link to download the article/book chapter from your interlibrary services account.

Service limitations

• Requests are limited to one chapter per book or one article per journal volume, up to 50 pages maximum or 10% total of a volume.
• All requests for Scan-to-PDF must be submitted through Searchworks. Eligible items will display a Scan-to-PDF request option. You will need to log in with your SUNetID.
• We aim to fill requests within 1-2 business days.
• Required course materials, items held in Course Reserves, and fragile items are not eligible for this service.
• We will notify you when a request exceeds our scanning limits.
• Scans are made at 300 DPI. PDFs include standard OCR (text searchable), depending on language.
• Items that already have an electronic full-text source are generally not eligible for this service.
• If we can't fill your request, you may request articles/chapter PDFs through Stanford’s interlibrary services program.

Copyright

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

We reserve the right to not fill a request, if in our judgement, it would involve violation of copyright law.

Contact us with questions and feedback