Borrowing - books and periodicals

All Mercy faculty, staff and students may borrow books. Alumni can also make arrangements to borrow. Your Mercy ID serves as your library card once we assign a barcode to your circulation record. Except for books on reserve, student loans are for 3 weeks at a time, and faculty loans are for 2 months. You may renew a loan in person or online (see "My Account" at the top of the Books and Media Catalog search page.) Reference books do not go out.

Books may be returned at any branch. An overdue (non-reserve item) is billed at 10 cents a day, and a lost book is billed for some overdues plus $10 processing fee, and either the replacement cost or $30 for out-of-print items.

Magazines and journals may be borrowed only from the main library and only by faculty. Anyone teaching at Mercy may borrow one or two of the unbound issues for 3 days at a time. For videotapes, DVDs or music, see the Media Services section for lending policies.

Print Reserves

Faculty may place print materials, including books and copies of articles, on reserve at the Circulation Desk for the semester. Normally, these are for in-library use only, but faculty can specify short loan periods for items they wish (from one day to one week.) Please allow 48 hours for materials to be put on reserve, and always limit those reserves to high-demand titles for current classes only. Faculty who place materials on reserve may borrow them as needed during the course of the semester. Fines for overdue reserve materials are $1.00 per hour up to a maximum of $4.00 per item.