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Circulation

Borrowing Materials

Borrowing Guidelines

Library materials are checked out by BRCC students or employees from the Information Desk with a BRCC student/staff ID or other photo identification. Library materials must be picked up in-person at the Information Desk. Community members must have a BRCC library card to access all library resources, including usage of library computers. The library information desk can issue a free library card with any form of government issued ID. Persons under 18 will need a legal guardian present to obtain a signature. As a community service, the Houff Library is open to the public free of charge.

Borrower Information

The amount of items that may be borrowed depends on the patron’s borrower status. If a patron is a student, faculty, or staff member they can borrow up to twenty items. Community members may borrow up to five items.

BRCC students, faculty, and staff are eligible to borrow all library items. Community members are eligible to borrow books and magazines. 

Circulation Periods

  • Books are loaned for four weeks, with one renewal. 
  • Magazines/journals are loaned for seven days, and can not be renewed. 
  • Extended-use graphing calculators are loaned for four weeks, and can be renewed in-person every four weeks. 
  • Day-use graphing calculators are due back thirty minutes before the library closes on the same day they are borrowed. 
  • Webcams are loaned for one week, and can be renewed in-person every week. 
  • Course reserves are mostly available for two hours in-library use, unless stated otherwise. 
  • Interlibrary loan borrowing period and renewals are set by the lending library. 
  • Laptops are available for day-use, five-week, or fifteen-week loan periods.

Renewals

Library books and interlibrary loan (ILL) renewals can be requested by being brought to the library, emailing the library, or calling the library. Calculators can be renewed every four weeks in-person at the library. Webcams may be renewed every week in-person at the library. Library items will not be renewed if the material has been requested by another patron. ILL renewals are approved by the lending library.

Interlibrary Load (ILL)

Interlibrary loan, often abbreviated as ILL, is free a service that allows BRCC students, faculty, and staff to borrow books, articles, or book chapters from other libraries that BRCC does not own.

Requesting ILLs

To request an ILL, start by filling out this ILL request form. If you are requesting a physical book, you will receive an email to your BRCC email account when the book is ready to be picked at the library and when it is due back. If you would like to request a renewal, you can email the library at library@brcc.edu. Articles and book chapters will be emailed directly to your BRCC email account.  

ILL Policy

ILLs are available to BRCC students, faculty, and staff. ILL loan periods, renewals, and replacement fees are set by the lending library. If borrowers do not pick up two ILLs that they have requested, they will be required to meet with the Coordinator of Library Services & Tutoring before they can request additional ILLs.

Blocks, Fees, and Replacements

Once library items or materials are determined to be past-due, BRCC students and community patrons receive four notices incrementally regarding the due date and the status of their borrowed items. When library items (excluding laptops, laptop accessories, and webcams) are 30 days overdue, borrowers will receive a letter by mail and email informing them of the date they need to return their item(s), pay the replacement fee, or purchase a replacement copy.

Students will have a hold placed on their library account and will be unable to check out library materials after 30 days; community patrons will have a hold placed on their account and will be unable to check out library materials after 16 days. Borrowers will also be informed when a negative service indicator will be placed in SIS which will prevent: registration for classes, student refunds, graduation, and future check out of library materials. 

Students that do not return their laptop, laptop accessories, or webcam after three business days past their due date will have a hold placed on their account and a negative service indicator will be placed in SIS.

Fees and Replacements

Unreturned library items that are not laptops, laptop accessories, or webcams will have a replacement fee of $50 placed on the borrower’s account. Borrowers will be responsible for the replacement cost of the laptop, laptop accessories, and webcams. 

Borrowers are able to purchase a replacement copy of items that are not laptops, laptop accessories, or webcams. If borrowers would like to purchase a replacement item, they must request a link from the library staff directly; no other replacement items will be accepted.

Laptop Borrowing Information

Students that return their laptop and laptop accessories on time are eligible to renew/borrow laptops as they are available. Students that return their laptop or laptop accessories within three days past their due date are not eligible to borrow a laptop for the remainder of that semester or the following semester. Students that do not return their laptop or laptop accessories after three business days past their due date will have a negative service indicator placed in SIS and will no longer be eligible to borrow a laptop from the library. The Coordinator of Library Services can make an exception to these borrowing restrictions in cases with special circumstances.

How are books arranged on the shelves?

Libraries use classification systems to organize books on the shelves. Most colleges follow the Library of Congress classification system which uses letters and numbers to arrange books so that items on the same subject are together on the shelf. 

Each subject area has a corresponding letter or group of letters with it. For example, science books are found in the Q section while the History of Education is found in the LA section. These letters and numbers are usually located on the spine of the book and are called “call numbers.”

For a complete list, see the Library of Congress subject list located here: https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/

*If you find one book on the shelf that works perfectly for your research interest, make sure to check the surrounding books because they might also be perfect resources for your research.

Reading Call Numbers

How are Call Numbers arranged on the shelves?

The first letter(s) of a Call Number are shelved alphabetically.

P is before PR is before PS

The numbers following the first letter(s) are whole numbers.

5 comes before 10; 10 comes before 100; 100 comes before 2,000, etc.

HV 52 is before HV 502 is before HV 4311

The number to the right of the decimal point is a fraction of the whole number to the left.

PA 128.25 is before PA 128.3 is before PA 128.325