Tripsaver Instructions for Distance Learners

Mail delivery is available to any NC State student, faculty, or staff member. You can still get books in person, but we can mail them to you instead. We deliver items from NC State's collections and interlibrary loan materials at no cost to you. Questions? Email library_tripsaver@ncsu.edu.

Sign Up for Mail Delivery

Register as a distance learner to borrow items like books and DVDs from any library and have them delivered straight to you by mail. To set up your delivery options, you'll have to sign up for Tripsaver and update your library account.

  1. If you haven't placed a Tripsaver (Interlibrary Loan) request before, sign up for Tripsaver (opens in new window). Skip this step if you're already a Tripsaver user.
    • Complete the process by selecting your department and a main campus pickup location (you'll need to do this even if you'll be using mail delivery services)
  2. Once you're registered for Tripsaver, go to your library account (opens in new window)
  3. Select Edit Account Info
  4. Change "Are you a distance/extension user?" to Yes
  5. Update your address

How to Request Books, DVDs, and Other Items

Request through Tripsaver
  • Requesting NC State-owned items: If you find an item in the Libraries’ Catalog that you would like to request, go to Tripsaver and fill out the appropriate request form.
    • For example, if you want to request a book, go to the Tripsaver page and click the Books button, then fill out the required information such as Title and Author. (On-campus users can only use Tripsaver for items from other libraries; as a distance learner, you'll use it for NC State–owned items too.)
  • Requesting items from other libraries: If you find a book or journal that we don't have, we will borrow it from another library and mail it directly to you. The whole world of library collections is available to you. All you have to do is fill out a Tripsaver request form.
  • Delivery speed & return instructions

How to Request Articles

Request through Tripsaver

All articles are automatically delivered to your email as PDFs—you don't even need to be setup as a distance learner to request articles, since we send them by email. Articles are delivered by email within 1-2 business days.

If you encounter a page with a “Request this item” button, you can simply press the Request button and then submit your request from the form:

screen shot of a page with a Request this PDF button