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Circulation

Everything you need to know about borrowing and renewing library materials, including loan limits for different types of users, how to renew materials, and course reserve information.

Course Reserves

Placing Material on Reserve

Material to be placed on reserve should be brought to the Circulation Desk between 7:00am and 3:30pm weekdays. A completed reserve form (available at the Circulation Desk) must accompany the material, so give yourself time when you visit.

Suggestions

  • Requested material will be processed in order of receipt and placed on reserve as quickly as possible (24-48 hours). However, it is the responsibility of the requesting faculty to give Circulation staff sufficient time to process material before class assignments are made.
  • It will help if you can submit a course reading schedule with dates for all material so we know which readings should receive priority.
  • Each item on reserve must have a specific loan period.
  • In the event that a particular item is requested by two or more faculty, the shorter requested loan period will be used.

The following types of material are accepted for reserve:

  • Cataloged books (library copies)
  • Photocopies of articles or chapters of books
  • Course outlines, syllabi, sample tests & study guides, manuscripts, and notes
  • Audio cassettes
  • Video cassettes
  • DVDs
  • Compact discs
  • CD-ROMs and other non-book material
  • Government publications
  • Faculty-owned material (NOTE: Faculty-owned copies of books and other material are placed on reserve at the owner's risk.The library will not replace privately owned material lost or damaged while on reserve. The library will not assess a replacement fee for privately owned material against the borrower but will assess all applicable fines.)

The following types of material may not be placed on reserve:

  • Rare books
  • Reference works
  • Complete issues of library periodicals

Loan Periods

Reserve loan periods reflect the need for the material by a large number of readers during the brief period of time:

  • Library only: 4-hour use in the library
  • Three-day loan: 72-hour period

Recalls 

Since reserve needs take precedence over individual or research needs, the Circulation Department will recall books from individual patrons for reserve use regardless of the length of time held.

Removing Material from Reserve

Two weeks prior to the end of each semester, faculty will be sent a printout of reserve holdings and asked to indicate whether to retain or remove the titles. Material not renewed for the following semester will be automatically removed. You may have items removed from your reserve shelf at any time by stopping by the Circulation Desk, e-mailing requests to cclark1@murraystate.edu, or calling 270-809-3511 to have material returned through campus mail. Material may also be released temporarily from reserve for a specific need at the request of the faculty member(s) who placed the material on reserve.