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Circulation Policies - Page 1



Circulation Policies

Table of Contents


Overview

The libraries of the City University of New York participate in a Universal Courtesy Open Access lending agreement.  This website was created to provide CUNY students, faculty and staff with each college's circulation policy concerning loans, renewals and fines.


Who may borrow?

  • A currently validated I.D. card must be presented to enter or borrow library materials from any CUNY school.

  • CUNY faculty, staff, currently enrolled students, and retired faculty (with appropriate identification) may borrow books from any CUNY library except:
    • The CUNY Law School Library only lends to Law School faculty, staff and students.  Patrons from other CUNY colleges can visit the CUNY Law Library but have no borrowing privileges.

  • Students currently enrolled in SUNY's Empire State College students are granted the same borrowing privileges as CUNY students. They should be issued a CUNY Open Access card with a generic barcode with an expiration date at the end of the semester.

  • Each library has a certain number of patrons that only have borrowing privileges at that library.  These are typically:

    • Local alumni (alumni have access only to their home campus library)
    • Visiting scholars
    • Friends of the Library
    • Neighboring high school students
    • Special patrons
    Check with the circulation desk staff if you have questions about these patrons.


Loan periods

  • Loan periods and renewal policies listed on this website are based on regular loan, circulating books only.  Policies may differ significantly for other library materials.
  • The CUNY library circulation committee recommended, and the Council of Chief Librarians approved, a standardized loan period for the initial loan of books:

    • CUNY Undergraduates, graduate students and staff - 21 days
    • CUNY Doctoral students - 42 days
    • CUNY Faculty - 42 days, although a college may give a longer loan period to their own faculty.


Placing holds

  • Open Access patrons can place a hold through CUNY+ when logged onto My Account.

  • Patrons can select the pick-up library for the book when placing the hold.

  • Circulation desk staff can place holds for patrons who are not part of Open Access.

Renewals

  • Items may be renewed if there are no hold requests on the item. Renewals must be done

    • in person at the lending library only, or
    • electronically through the My Account link in CUNY+.
  • Renewal periods and the number of renewals allowed depend on local library policy. See the following pages for more information on renewals.


Returns

  • Books may be returned to any CUNY library.

Fines and fees

  • Regular fines: Overdue fines are ten cents ($.10) a day for regular loans.

  • Hold/Recall fines: Overdue fines are one dollar ($1.00) a day for recall and rush recall loans to a maximum of $50.
  • Reserve fines: Overdue fines are generally $0.2 per minute ($1.20 an hour) for reserve loans. Maximum fines for overdue reserve materials vary by campus.
  • Replacement fees for lost materials must be paid at the library owning the material. Fees may vary. Check with the lending college.
  • Although some colleges waive overdue fines for faculty, in all cases faculty must pay for lost books.
  • Overdue fines may be paid at any CUNY library.


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Send corrections and updates to: larry.mccue@mail.cuny.edu
Content last revised on January 9, 2009