UT is Highest-lending Library in the Southeast

The University of Tennessee Libraries made more interlibrary loans than any other member of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL). With 18,160 items loaned, UT topped the list, followed by Arkansas at 17,775 and Duke at 17,626.

Interlibrary lending is a service that allows individuals to borrow materials not held by their own universities or local public libraries.

“The large number of items we lend to libraries across Tennessee is a driving factor in this statistic,” said Jennie Mezick, UT Libraries’ associate dean for research, collections, and assessment. “We’ve built a robust interlibrary lending service so that residents throughout the state have access to our collection without coming to Knoxville. This is supported by the state’s investment in a courier for the regional library system, which makes it possible to transport books from our collection to residents in Northwest Tennessee in as little as two days.”

UT Libraries also had the seventh highest number of visitors and ranked fifth for the amount spent on collections, outranked in spending only by Johns Hopkins, Emory, Duke, and Vanderbilt. That’s some pretty illustrious company!

Like many professional organizations, ASERL gathers statistics on its member libraries. Statistics reported above are from the 2024–25 academic year, the most recent year for which data are available.

The University of Tennessee is one of 38 ASERL member libraries across the Southeast. UT’s ASERL membership includes the UT Libraries, the Joel A. Katz Law Library, and the UT Health Science Center libraries in Knoxville and Memphis.