Guides: Library Student Worker Guide: Circulation Policies

Library Users

Gordon College Students, Faculty, Staff

Patrons should present their own current ID card when checking items out of the library. (No temp. cards.) If they don’t have their ID card with them they can show you another form of photo ID. Do a patron search by ID# or name to call up their record. Make sure the record you select is a Gordon record and that it is the correct one. NOTHING may be checked out without a photo ID of the person checking out the materials.

Gordon-Conwell Community

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary faculty, staff, and students – see ‘Guests’ below.

Guests

Guest patrons include anyone not affiliated with Gordon College. All guest patrons must present two pieces of ID to checkout items – their library card and a photo ID which verifies the identity of the patron. Guests from anywhere in Massachusetts may use their home library card providing it is current (it will have a barcode on it). Do a patron search of their name to see if they are already in the system and verify that you have called up the correct patron by confirming address and phone #. If they are not in the system, fill out the online registration form. Verify the information on the registration form by comparing it with the person's driver's license. If the Guest patron does not have a library card from their home library, and is not in the system, fill out the online registration form. We will enter the information into the NOBLE system and the patron may pick up their new card the next time they visit us.

Alumni are given no special borrowing privileges. Alumni may check out items as guest patrons.

Patron Registration Form
This form is to be used to input patron data for patrons who are not in the NOBLE database. ONLY MA residents may borrow Gordon materials.

Loan Periods

21 Day Circulation - Materials that circulate for 21 days include:

Books and materials in the general circulating collection, Campus Only Books, Display books, Government Documents, Maps, Pamphlets, Non-print Materials, Phonotapes, Career Resources, and Prints.

Books in the general collection and display books may be renewed once. Campus Only Books are not renewable.

1 Week Circulation - Compact Discs, Curriculum Library materials (including tests, juvenile, and picture books), DVD’s, Campus Only DVDs, books and DVDs kept behind the Circ. Desk, and Videotapes circulate on a 1-week loan period.

Most of the items that are circulated for one week can be renewed once and accrue $0.50 per day fine. Exceptions to this rule are Career Resources, Circ. Desk books and DVDs, Curriculum Library Materials (including tests, juvenile, and picture books). These still accrue $0.50 per day fine.

Circ. Desk Materials - Materials that can be found at the circ. desk such as Curriculum Library Cards, Phone Chargers, Extension Cords, and more have varying circulation timelines. Make sure that you look at the due date and verbally tell students when they are due. For example, phone charges, extension cords, and headphones typically check out for 4 hours. These accrue a $0.50 per hour fine.

Overnight Circulation - Periodicals and Reference books may circulate overnight only (1 hour before closing) and are due at opening on the following day. They are not renewable and have a $0.50 per day fine.

Reserves - Materials on Reserve circulate for a specified time period (2 hours, 4 hours, 24 hours, and 72 hours). (The system automatically calculates this.) 2 hour and 4 hour reserves may be signed out overnight, if available, on a first-come, first-serve basis. They are due back the next day when the library opens.

These materials are not renewable. 2 hour and 4 hour reserves have a $0.50 per hour fine and 24 hour and 72 hour reserves have a $0.50 per day fine.

Vining and Special Collections - Books in the Vining, Special, Early, Brooks, or Temperance collections do not circulate outside of the library. They must be used in the Archives. If someone requests access please refer them to Sarah or to the archives@gordon.edu email.

Interlibrary Loan - The period of an interlibrary loan depends on the status of the patron. There are no renewals available on interlibrary loans. (Interlibrary Loans should not be confused with NOBLE books which circulate like any material in the general collection.) Faculty and Adjunct Faculty have a 120 day circulation and do not accrue fines. Staff members have a 42 day circulation and do not accrue fines. Graduate and undergraduate students as well as other users have a 21 day circulation and have a $0.50 per day fine.

Faculty - Faculty loans for books are for four months, with the exception of new books which circulate for 21 days. All other types of materials circulate for the normal periods. Any requests for a longer loan period or renewal must be granted by the circulation manager. Faculty do not accrue fines.

Staff - Staff loans for books are for 42 days, with the exceptions noted above for faculty. Staff members also do not accrue fines.

Guests - Guests include all non-Gordon patrons. Loan periods for guests are the same as Gordon students with the exception of reserves. Guests are not allowed to check out anything that is on reserve or anything from the Curriculum Library area.

Recall - All materials checked out are subject to recall three weeks after the original checkout date. Exception: materials needed for reserve are subject to immediate recall with no three-week waiting period.

Renewals & Offline Circulation

The best procedure for renewal is to scan the patron barcode (or do patron search) to bring up the patron’s record.

Click on the ‘Items Out’ tab to see the list of items the patron has checked out.
Select the items you want to renew by checking the box to the left of the item.
Go to the ‘Actions’ drop-down menu which is located above this list on the right. Choose ‘Renew’.
This list of items checked out will show you details such as the number of renewals left on the item and the due date.
If a patron wants to extend the checkout time but has no more renewals they need to see Sarah.

In case Evergreen is down because of a power outage or system update please follow these instructions:

On the computer desktop located in the ‘Forms’ folder there is a spreadsheet where you can record the information on the items being checked out. The info asked for includes patron barcode, item barcode, and current date.
If needed write notes in the next column over. For example, if you are registering the patron or they do not know whether they are in the system or not write a note which says “see registration form”. Another note you might make is “renewal” if someone is renewing an item rather than checking it out.
Reserves – Checking these out offline is TBD because reserves have changed recently. Check with Erica about the procedure.
When items are returned place them on a book cart with the appropriate label attached. When the system comes back online whoever is at the circulation desk can proceed to check them in.
After the material is checked in then the staff person at the desk can proceed to check out the materials recorded on the spreadsheet.

Periodicals can check out to Gordon students, staff, and faculty. To checkout periodicals, write the title and volume information for each periodical being checked out on a blue periodicals slip (in the glass vase on the circulation desk). Check them out using the barcode on the periodicals slip.

In the glass container of items above the drawer at the circ desk, find the long blue "Periodical" slip (they're behind the pink course reserve slips).
In one line record the student's ID number, Title of the Periodical, and Date/Issue number/Volume number of the issue being checked out. If multiple periodicals are being checked out at once, put only ONE periodical for every slip. (Example: if someone is checking out 3 newspapers, each newspaper should have its own slip for a total of 3 blue slips.)
Open the patron's record in Evergreen.
Scan the barcode at the top of the blue periodical slip.
File the blue periodical slip in the alphabetical tabs in the same box. File alphabetically by Periodical name.
Give the patron the periodical. They have it for four hours.

If someone returns a periodical, place it on the “Returned Periodicals” shelf, which is just below the Board Game (Needs Counted) shelf.

Reshelving Locations

After checking in a group of materials place them in the back as soon as possible. Do not let them pile up on the counter. They 1^st go on the shelf labeled ‘Reshelving–Sensitized' or 'Reshelving-To Be Sensitized'. Make sure to shelve materials according to the label/sign on shelves in back.

Usually the location is named in the call #. Exp.: Juvenile, Picture, Cur. Lib., Score, Oversize, DVD, CD, Circ. Desk
Some materials are identified by other means.
- Reserves have a yellow sticker with course ID and letter designation found on the spine or front of the material. These are arranged alphabetically by the letter after the course ID.
- Lawrence Holcomb Collection have the prefix 'Holcomb' above the call number. Some of them also have a blue dot near the barcode on the front cover.
- Faculty Author display books have a yellow strip saying ‘Faculty Author’ or ‘Gordon Author’ on the spine of the book.
- Crayons, colored pencils, DVD drives, USB chargers, plugs, calculators, binoculars, dry erase markers, headphones, the toolbox and the ukulele can all be found under the "Library of Things sign".
- There is a container on the counter with supplies for students such as pens, pencils, scissors, sticky notes, etc. They can access these on their own. For re-stocking the container supplies are kept in a drawer behind the desk. It is labeled "Supply Refills".
- There is a pencil sharpener for your use on a shelf under the counter. Here you will also find printer paper.
DVDs – These get shelved in call # order in the 3rd floor hallway.
Circ. Desk DVDs – These will be found in a separate location. For checkout the patron will give you an empty case (most of these say checkout for Gordon patron only). Exchange the empty duplicate case for the one with the disc. Check out the case with the disc to the patron. For check-in, after scanning exchange the case containing the disc for the empty duplicate one. The empty one gets reshelved back with the collection.

Over time you will become more familiar with all the locations. In the beginning of your 1^st semester working with us, and periodically after that, take a tour behind the desk to get to know where things are located.

Career & Holcomb Collection

Holcomb Collection

Holcomb Collection
This is an important and special collection honoring a former professor of Sociology who passed away in 2014. This collection was started and maintained by generous donations from family members and former students who loved Dr. Holcomb and want his legacy to live on. Dr. Holcomb was passionate about topics of race and gender, and faith intersection in those ideas. Those are the kinds of material you will find in this collection. The catalog location says "Holcomb Collection." All items in this collection have a prefix "Holcomb" above the call number. Some have a blue dot near the barcode. See next few slides for details.

Holcomb Collection

This is a book in the Holcomb Collection. Note the large blue dot next to the barcode. Please pay attention to this when you are reshelving! These should not go in the back to be reshelving in the stacks, but rather near the "Career" shelf to make sure they get back in the proper location. When you check these items in, an alert message will pop up telling you to reshelve it in the "Holcomb Collection."

Career

Career
All "Career" books (labeled Career in the location section of the cataloged) should be reshelved in the left section. Books in this section circulate for 1 week. There are three categories within career: Career Resources (resumes, cover letters, job markets, etc.), Writing Resources (citation style guides, books about writing), and Travel Guides. Books in each of these sections has a small colored dot on the spine above the call number to indicate what section it goes in. See the next few slides for details.

Career | Career Resource Book

This is a book in the Career section of the location "Career." All books in this section start with the Call Number prefix Career. Books that are specifically job or career related have a small blue dot above the call number and should be shelved in that area of the collection.

Career | Writing Resource book

This is a book in the Writing section of the location "Career." All books in this section start with the Call Number prefix Career. Books that are specifically citation help or writing related have a small orange dot above the call number and should be shelved in that area of the collection.

Career | Travel Guide books

This is a book in the Travel Guide section of the location "Career." All books in this section start with the Call Number prefix Career. Books that are specifically about travel have a small green dot above the call number and should be shelved in that area of the collection.

Circ Desk Reshelving

Course Reserves

All course reserve material should be reshelved first by their course ID (tells you what shelf are to put it) and then alphabetical by title. Use the yellow circles on the spine of the book/DVD to know where to shelve. We reshelve course reserve books by title for two reasons:

When asked for a title, you can scan the shelves quickly to see if we have copies available.
You can see how many copies of a title we have if they are together on the shelf.

Please reshelve course reserve books as soon as you check them in to avoid them accidently getting miss-shelved.

Curriculum Library Material

Anything with the call number prefix CurLib should be shelved in call number order on the top shelf above the Holds area. This includes material such as:

Teacher guides
Classroom kits and manipulative
Lesson planning material

It does not include:

Curriculum Tests (see next slide for details)
Juvenile and Picture books

Curriculum Tests

All Curriculum Tests should be shelved on the bottom shelf under the ILL shelves. Curriculum Test have a call number that begins CurLib Tests. The Test part is how you can tell the difference between tests and other regular Curriculum Library material. Naomi or Beckie will check the contents and make sure they are reshelved in the Reference Office.

Juvenile & Picture Books

Any juvenile books (young adult/children's chapter books) or picture books, identified by the Juv or Pic call number prefix, should be shelved on the second shelf down above the ILL section. Juvenile books are shelved to the left. Picture books are shelved to the right. Please shelve all juv/pic books in call number order! This helps our reshelvers!

Scores

Anything with the call number prefix Score should be shelved in call number order on the top shelf above the juv/pic books. This includes material such as: musical scores, composers, sheet music, mini scores, etc.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Books

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is the collaborative sharing of materials from network libraries (NOBLE), other libraries in MA (Commonwealth Catalog), or across the country. There are three different locations for reshevling ILL Return books. It's important books get in the right location to make sure they get sent back to the proper library:

NOBLE
Books returned from any NOBLE libraries. These books will check-in normally and a transit slip to the routing library will appear in Evergreen. You do not need to print transit slips. Reshelve the material on the NOBLE ILL Return shelf.
Commonwealth Catalog (ComCat)
Books returned from Massachusetts libraries outside of the NOBLE network. These books will have a white printed book strap across the cover. Check-in the book using the large barcode on the printed book strap. All ComCat books should be reshelved on the Commonwealth Catalog shelf under the NOBLE books.
Lori's ILL Shelf
Any other material returned that is not our book, a NOBLE book, or ComCat is likely an ILL for Lori. Books returned for ILL should have a slip of paper tucked inside the book that will give details about the ILL request. Find the barcode on the book (usually the one from the library) and check-in normally. Place all ILL books on Lori's ILL shelf.

Problem Shelf

The Problem Shelf or Problems for Alec Shelf is for materials that need to be reshelved in the storage area of the attic or that need to be repaired. There are index cards noting whether a book needs to go to storage or be repaired on the shelf and you'll need to put them in so that the word is facing outward as pictured.