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Circulation Policies

Coulter Library has a cooperative agreement with the Onondaga County Library and the New York State Library System, which enables users to obtain almost any book or article in existence, no matter where it is located. Coulter Library follows the SUNY Open Access Policy, which allows all current students, faculty, and staff guest privileges at all participating SUNY libraries.

Coulter Library is open to the public. OCC students & college employees need an OCC ID Card to borrow materials. Community users may register for an OCC Library Card at the main desk. Current valid identification required.

Interlibrary loan service is offered for materials not available at OCC.

Loan period for books is 21 days. Loan period for CDs, records, and audiobooks are 14 days. Loan periods can be extended, however recalls are possible if the book is requested by another patron. Faculty are allowed to borrow materials from special collections or the reference department for a brief loan period by obtaining permission from a librarian.

Circulation policies for periodicals, videos and dvds, and the interlibrary loan service are provided below.

Periodicals

Periodicals, are located on the first floor in the northeast corner of the library. Most of our newer issues are out on the floor, where the public can access them. Others are in “closed stacks", behind the counter, or upstairs in the Founders’ Room. Staff will retrieve any needed titles from these areas. The rest of our collection is on microfilm or microfiche, in areas on the floor as marked.

A printout of our holdings is on the Periodicals counter. It tells which titles and years are where. If you need help with film or fiche, staff will show you how to run the reader/printers. Copies are a dime apiece. If you wish to take free-standing magazines to another area where you can copy for free, please sign them out on one of the cards provided on the Periodicals counter. We need your name, extension number, date of borrowing, title and date of periodical borrowed. You can keep current issues overnight, older issues for 2-3 days. If you want to avoid a trip back to the library, just return the periodical in an inter-office envelope.

Media

An account must be created in our internal booking database (Tek)(this in addition to signing up for a library card) for each faculty member before they can check out videos and dvds. Videos and dvds can be borrowed for a maximum of 2 weeks. However, please borrow films for as short a time period possible so the film is available for another class or for students who want to review it here.

Checking out a film for class is a two step process. You can call us or stop by to see if the material is available. We can transfer your call to AV if you would like equipment setup. AV will usually deliver items to the room with equipment and AV will return the item (but only if they delivered it!). If you are using a Smart Classroom - AV does not provide delivery and pick-up service. Instructors are required to pick up and return the material themselves! Please visit AV's web page on Classroom Equipment Delivery & Service for more information.

Students can view films in the Media Center only.

Interlibrary Loan

All patrons, including faculty, must have a valid OCC Library card to utilize the library's interlibrary loan(ILL) service. Some of our databases provide online ILL forms. We have forms available online and at the main desk on the first floor of the library.

Regardless of which form you complete. You will be asked to provide contact information. We will also ask whether you are willing to pay for the material. If you are willing to pay, we will ask how much you are willing to pay.

Our library complies with copyright laws. For example, in one year we can request 5 copies from 1 title published within in the past 5 years. Other restrictions may be attached to materials we receive. We will explain any such restrictions when you pick up the ILL material(s).

The average time required to receive an item requested through ILL is 10 working days (approximately two weeks). Some requests may take much longer. Please plan ahead: Allow adequate time for your requested materials to arrive!

This page last updated 5/25/07