NYPL Scan & Deliver

Scan and Deliver

The New York Public Library offers remote access to portions of its vast research collections via Scan & Deliver, our electronic document delivery service. Cardholders can request selections from books or articles from scholarly journals, and the Library will scan and deliver them via email.

As of September 2020, more Library collection items than ever before are eligible for this service; all of those eligible items will have a Request button in the Library’s Research Catalog.

What Can Be Requested?

General Collections

As of September 2020, the Library has made general collections located onsite at its research centers available for Scan & Deliver. Eligible general collection items held at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts may be requested by clicking the Request button wherever it appears in the Research Catalog. Once your request is submitted, the item will appear "On Hold" in your NYPL account. When the document has been scanned and is available for download, users will receive an email message with the URL and a password to access the file. Requests will be filled as quickly as possible; for now, due to the limited number of staff allowed onsite, please be aware it may take up to two weeks. Note: Items held at ReCAP also remain eligible.

Please note:

  • Requests are for personal research use only. Please limit requests to a small portion of the work (one chapter, one article, around 10% of work or 50 pages for public domain works). Please note that requests for multiple chapters in the same work cannot be filled.
  • If you need access to more of the title than we can scan, please visit the research center where the title is located to view the item in person. (Please note you may need to book an appointment.)
  • Due to the volume of requests, we cannot provide lookup assistance. Please have a specific citation or pages identified in your request.
  • Scan requests for entire works will be rejected, regardless of copyright status or length.
  • Requests will be filled as quickly as possible; please be aware it may take up to two weeks.
  • Only items in good condition will be scanned.
  • Files will remain available to the user for 30 days. Each article file can be retrieved a maximum of five times.
  • Each user is currently limited to a maximum of five Scan & Deliver requests per week (the Library’s ability to fill the requests is limited by demand).

Special Collections

Digital delivery of selected material from the Library’s manuscript, archives, prints, and photographs collections is also available. To initiate a Scan & Deliver request, please contact the appropriate special collection division by email.

Please note:

  • Requests are for personal research use only. A maximum of 25 pages may be requested.
  • Delivery may take six to eight weeks.
  • Digital delivery is not available for audio and moving image materials at this time.
  • No rush services are available at this time.
  • The Library reserves the right to limit the total number of requests by an individual user.

Expedited Scanning and High-Resolution Reproductions

For expedited document delivery requests, please see the Interlibrary and Document Delivery Services fee schedule. Users requiring high-resolution scans for publication or commercial use may contact the Library’s Permissions and Reproductions Department.