All Union College students, faculty, and staff may borrow materials from the library. Each borrower must have a valid bar-coded identification card or library-issued card. Borrowing limits vary: undergraduates, 35 books; graduate students, 50 books; faculty and staff, 75 books.

Union College alumni and trustees are entitled to borrow library materials. Also, residents of Knox County, KY over the age of 16 may obtain a borrowing card. Townspersons are limited to three books; alumni and trustees may borrow five books.

Loan Periods

Loan periods vary depending on the status of the patron and the type of material borrowed. The grid below shows loan periods for specific users and item types.

Some curriculum, and document materials do not circulate nor do periodicals, reference, genealogy, Kentucky, archives, Lincoln, and abstracts.

Fine structure

LRC materials (including videos and their guides), curriculum kits (each piece), and interlibrary loans: $1.00 per day; Reserve materials: $.10/hr or $.50/day

All other materials including curriculum, juvenile, government documents, books from the stacks: $.05/day for Union College students; all other patrons are charged $.10/day.

During your research, if you discover materials (books, magazine articles, and documents) you would like to use that are not owned by the library, we can attempt to get them for you through interlibrary loan. Several of the FirstSearch databases support on-line interlibrary loan requests. In addition, you can make a request in person, or by using printed forms which are available at the reference desk. In addition,. Any library staff member will be glad to help you learn the ILL request procedure. Do not hesitate to ask for assistance.

Please be certain that the library does not already own the item you are requesting through ILL. It is a good idea to get in the habit of conferring with a librarian before you request numerous interlibrary loans. The librarian may know of sources you have not consulted; this could save valuable time you need for your research.

ILL delivery time varies with each request. It is impossible to pinpoint how long it will take to get a response from the lending library. Thus, you should give us as much time as possible to fill your requests. There is no charge for borrowing books; photocopies of journal articles cost five cents per page. Overdue ILL items are charged $1.00 per day. Loans should be returned to the ILL desk in the technical services office, or to the librarian on duty at the reference desk.

Each semester, many faculty members put books, articles, videotapes, and audiotapes on reserve in the library for use by all students in specific classes. Records for all reserve materials appear in the library public access catalog and are searchable by instructor's name or by course. All reserve materials are checked out to the patron requesting them. Patrons using reserve materials must be registered users and have valid barcodes on their student identification cards or library-issued cards.

Reserves are housed on shelves and in drawers behind the Information Desk. If you are unsure of the reserve item you need, bring your syllabus with you to the Information Desk; a staff member will find the correct item and check it out to you. Most reserves are available for in-library use only. A small number of items can be checked out overnight or for three days. This is always the decision of the instructor. When checking items out overnight or for a longer period of time, please be considerate and remember that others in the class need to use these materials. Return them on time.