Borrowing

All WOU students, faculty, and staff may check out circulating materials from Hamersly Library. Your WOU ID card serves as your library card and is required in order to check out materials. WOU alumni, emeritus WOU faculty and staff, adult residents of Polk, Marion, Benton, and Linn counties may register as special borrowers to receive limited borrowing privileges. Photo ID and proof of address or affiliation is required. Ask at the checkout desk for further details.

There are two systems through which WOU students, faculty, and staff can obtain materials from other libraries: Summit and Interlibrary Loan. These services are not available to special borrowers.

Summit is the shared catalog and borrowing system of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of academic libraries in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, that is used to request most books, videos, and CDs. They may also borrow circulating materials from Orbis Cascade Alliance member libraries, either by visiting member libraries in person or by requesting materials via Summit. Requests for articles are handled through the Interlibrary Loan process and not through Summit.

Interlibrary Loan is used to request articles from journals and any books, videos, and CDs not available in Summit.

Whenever you check out materials, you will receive an email receipt listing the date that each item is due. You may see due dates and renew items through My Library on the library homepage. The Checkout Desk (503-838-8902) will give you due date information or will renew items over the phone. Additionally and as a courtesy, we will notify you via email when materials you have checked out are overdue. The reminders do not substitute for your knowledge of the due dates. For students, staff, and faculty, the reminders are sent to your WOU email account. Community borrowers need to inform the Checkout Desk with any updated email information.

We have established these standard loan periods in order to provide equitable access to materials in our collection for all patrons. If the standard loan period for a particular item does not meet your needs, please let us know. We consider making adjustments to loan periods on a case-by-case basis in order to accommodate special needs.

Borrowers can request renewals via My Library on the library website. Renewals may also be requested by calling the Checkout Desk (503-838-8902) or by visiting the checkout desk in person. For WOU-owned materials, you are generally allowed up to one renewal. Renewals will be denied if the item has been requested by another patron. Materials currently on reserve for a course cannot be renewed. Summit materials may be renewed, or denied if the item has been requested by another patron. Interlibrary Loan (ILL) materials may sometimes be renewed, depending on the response of the library who loaned the materials to us.

The purpose of our renewal policy is to provide equitable access to materials in our collection for all patrons. If you have a special need that our policies do not accommodate, please let us know and we will consider adjusting the loan period for the item(s) you require.

Return materials (except equipment) to the book drop near the checkout desk or to one of the two marked book drops located outside the building. The two outside book drops are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One is located at the west entrance on Monmouth Avenue, and the other is in the parking lot near the east entrance. Items returned to the outside book drops after hours are checked in as of the date the library was last open. For example, if you return a book to an outside book drop before we open on Wednesday morning, we will use Tuesday as the check in date.

Traditional materials (such as books and videos) placed on reserve for classes are held behind the checkout desk. Reserve items can be checked out for four hours, one day, three days, seven days, or term long as determined by the faculty member who submitted the reserve request. Use the Reserves search tab in the catalog to locate and retrieve the information needed to obtain materials on reserve.

Replacement costs for lost items are billed through the University’s Business Office and can be paid at the Cashier’s window in the WOU Administration building during regular business hours.

Appealing Charges

If you think the library has made an error that resulted in a financial charge, or if you have a unique situation that made it difficult for you to return or renew materials on time, you may file an appeal. Charges may be upheld, reduced, or waived.

The following reasons are generally not regarded as valid for canceling or reducing charges:

• Forgetting or not knowing due dates, amount of fines, or library policy
• Disagreeing with fee structure or library policy
• Loaning the item to a third party
• Being too busy or out of town
• Claiming that your need was greater than another’s or that you were not done with the item
• Not receiving or not reading a courtesy overdue reminder
• Transportation problems
• Financial problems

Appeal forms are available electronically or at the Checkout Desk. Return the form to the Checkout Desk or attach it to an email addressed to pagell@wou.edu. Please file the appeal within 60 days of the charge notification from the WOU business office. The appeal decision will be made within two weeks of filing the form, and you will be notified by email.

Appeal decisions are made by the Public Services Librarian and library staff. The committee takes into consideration your appeal statement, applicable data from the library’s circulation system, and previous communication you had with the library, as well as your historic record of library fines. If you wish, the initial decision may be appealed to the Dean of Hamersly Library.