bonosgirl84 said:
i am fascinated by how other libraries are run, though.
This is how ours works (this is a school library) - Different items have different loan periods, and it's also different depending on your status at the college. I think students get about 10 days for "normal" items. Items "on reserve" are available for specified hours. For example, one reserve item might only be available for two hours, others are for 24 hours. For staff, the loan period is more like 3-4 weeks. Once you check something out, you can renew it indefinitely, as long as it's not a reserve item or on hold for someone else. If it goes on hold, you bring it back at the return date issued when you checked it out (you don't have to bring it in early). Once an item is coming due, the system e-mails a reminder. At the due date, you still get a three day grace period, after which you're charged $1/day per item up to the value of the item.
There are other parts of the library that have different rules. For example, we have a theological seminary and the Meeter Center, which contains important/rare/expensive books, documents, and artifacts pertinent to theology. I think for those you have to sit in the center to use them, but they have their own system and their own full time secretary. There's also Cayvan, which holds all the multimedia. Most of this you have to sit and listen to/watch in the library so you can't copy it illegally.
I suppose the fact that this is a school library with a significant amount of theological material (an entire center and one whole floor) makes it a bit different.
We have outside drop-boxes and can do all browsing, renewing, holding, etc online through our Webcat. If we don't have a book or document, the reference librarians will get
anything through Inter-library Loan (ILL). They'll get it for free from another library.
For assigned readings for essays and such, we're a bit different than Lara's b/c you are either required to purchase the book or compilation of readings as part of your textbook purchases, or the prof will have the readings on reserve, so you only get them for a few hours at a time and if you need more time, you are allowed to photocopy them (you pay). Other than that, you're on your own. Most students use ILL or have library cards to neighboring colleges and the public library system (which will also retrieve anything from any library on this side of the state at no cost).
OK, now I feel like a
I only know all of this because 1) I work in IT so we support most of the technology the library uses and 2) I was a TA for an IT class that teaches freshmen how to use technology for research.