Faculty Services @ Spiva Library

Since its founding in July 1998, MOBIUS has transformed library services for the citizens of Missouri.  Formerly a part of the University of Missouri System, on July 1, 2010 MOBIUS became a Missouri not-for-profit corporation with 501 (C)(3) tax-exempt status.  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of its members, the organization has grown from 50 founding charter members to more than 70 members serving a total of 143 physical branches.

The consortium’s purpose is to share library materials, information, and services using accessible, cost effective methods.  Today, the MOBIUS Union Catalog has expanded to include more than 25 million items, serving over 1.5 million people from the higher education community and the state of Missouri.  A courier service delivers library materials to member libraries once per day, 5 days per week.

MSSU faculty, staff and students are eligible to electronically request books from other member libraries free of charge.  A book requested on Monday could arrive as soon as Thursday of the same week.  Although delivery times vary, books typically arrive within 3-5 business days.

To appreciate its scope, access this link to view a map and a list of its participants: http://searchmobius.org/screens/libinfo.html

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service for MSSU faculty, staff, students, community borrowers, and CMSU, SMSU, and UMKC graduate students who attend classes on the MSSU campus. On their behalf, we request from another library those items - articles, books, dissertations, and in some cases, videos - that are not available at the George A. Spiva Library, other MOBIUS member libraries or through Prospector.

Prospector is the name of the catalog utilized by the Colrado Alliance of Research Libraries with holdings from over 40 academic, public, and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming.

MOBIUS is now partnered with the Colorado Alliance providing all MOBIUS members access to the holdings of the Colorado Alliance libraries.

Now you can search and borrow from both MOBIUS and Prospector. You will be able to request materials through our catalog, and in a few days, the materials will be available for pick-up at a library near you. And best of all – it’s FREE.

Here’s How it Works:

1. Begin by searching our catalog (SWAN) for the item you want
2. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, click on link for Search MOBIUS
3. If the item is located, click on “Request” and follow steps 5 – 8
4. If the item is not located, click on the Search Prospector button, then locate
the item and click on “Request”
5. Choose your library cluster (SWAN) from the drop-down list
6. Enter your name and identification information (S# + MSSU), and choose where you would like to pick up the item
7. Click “Submit”
8. You will be notified when item arrives. Item must be picked up within 7 days.  You can log into your library account at any time to check the status of your
item.

InterLibrary Loan is a broader service that includes tens of thousands of academic, public, and special libraries in Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe. It affords users the ability to access millions of books, as well as dissertations, journals, videos, and much more, that are unavailable at Spiva Library, through our subscription databases, or our consortium partners.

It is our goal to acquire requested materials as quickly as possible from libraries that share materials free of charge.  However, some materials are available only at libraries which charge fees.  When this is the case, we contact the requester to ask if s/he is willing to finance the lowest available fee. Although ILL charges vary, most libraries charge $10.00 to $25.00 for each request.