Dacus Library Policies and Procedures

Welcome to Dacus Library

We look forward to seeing you!

Library User Policies

Dacus Library Food and Drink Policy

It is the policy of Dacus Library to maintain an environment appropriate for the protection of library materials and conducive to study. Library computers are subject to the same rules and policies applied to all ACC lab computers. 

In order to conserve library resources and provide a comfortable study environment for all:

• Covered beverages are allowed except near library owned computers

Interlibrary Loan Borrowing and Lending

The Interlibrary Loan Service (ILL) is part of the Winthrop University Dacus Library Resource Sharing and Circulation Office, and provides access to collections and materials from libraries across the United States to Winthrop University students, staff, faculty, and faculty emeritus. Conversely, this service also allows access to the holdings of Dacus Library to other U.S. libraries according to the standards set forth in the Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States and the IFLA International Resource Sharing and Document Delivery: Principles and Guidelines for Procedure.

Interlibrary Loan Borrowing 
 

Current Winthrop students, staff, faculty, and emeritus faculty can borrow through Interlibrary Loan. Emeritus faculty will need to contact the Interlibrary Loan Department before obtaining full access to the service.

There is no charge for Winthrop patrons to use this service.
However, if the cost of borrowing the material is over $25.00, the patron must pay the difference (i.e., anything beyond $25). Please note that late fees, replacement costs of lost materials, and costs of damaged materials must be borne by the user.

Interlibrary Loan will attempt to obtain all materials requested. Materials, however, are lent at the discretion of the lending library; and many libraries will not lend the following:

• textbooks,
• e-books,
• audiovisual materials,
• theses and dissertations,
• materials from archives and special collections,
• microfilm,
• fragile items,
• basic reference materials, and / or
• monographs published within the past two (2) years.

The lending library may restrict the use of an item to use within Dacus only, or prohibit copying or renewal. Dacus cannot change those conditions, and we ask our patrons to honor them.

The Winthrop University Interlibrary Loan Department complies with the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17) and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. All copyright laws, both national and international, must be followed when requesting items through ILL. Therefore, it is vitally important to keep the following in mind:

Periodicals published within the last five years are subject to Copyright Compliance Guidelines. These guidelines allow an institution to order five (5) articles each calendar year from a specific title published within the past five-year period. After the maximum is reached, a copyright compliance fee must be paid. Therefore, if a patron is requesting more than five articles published within the same publication within the past five years, that patron may want to contact the ILL Department to see if copyright has been exceeded for the calendar year. If it has, that patron will be responsible for the cost of copyright compliance fees. The ILL Department will contact you if you are about to exceed copyright compliance to see if you are willing to pay the fees. If unwilling, the requests exceeding copyright compliance will be cancelled.

Loan periods, restrictions, and fees are set by the lending library. If you would like to renew materials borrowed through Interlibrary Loan, please contact us before the due date on the book strap —many lending libraries will refuse renewal requests after this date.

The Interlibrary Loan Department will not fill requests for course-required textbooks; as such, all requests for textbooks will be cancelled. There are many reasons for this:

1. Many libraries do not purchase textbooks containing access codes and thus do not have them to lend;
2. Loan periods set by libraries are not long enough to cover the entire semester; and
3. Most libraries prefer their textbooks remain in-house for use by their own patrons.

Books lent to us from other libraries are given due dates set by the lending library. To make certain these books are returned in a timely manner, an overdue fine has been instituted. Once a book is two (2) weeks overdue, the patron will be sent notification of the offense, including information on fines for overdue items and charges for lost books. Any book that is one (1) month overdue will be billed a $10.00 (ten dollars) non-refundable fine. Patrons will be sent notification of this charge.

A book that is sixty (60) days overdue will be billed as a lost book. The charge for a lost book is $100.00; this includes the $10.00 overdue fine, a $15.00 processing fee, and a flat $75.00 replacement charge. These charges will be entered on the patron's university account. Patrons will be sent notification of these charges upon receipt of invoices from the lending library.

Subsequent Interlibrary Loan requests will be rejected until any and all overdue item(s) are returned.

Interlibrary Loan Lending for Other Libraries

Dacus Library will lend books and audio-visual material from the general collection and photocopies of articles from bound, microfilmed, and current issues of journals. Dacus Library will provide photocopies from material in our collection for borrowing libraries provided it does not violate any copyright restrictions. 

Only in special circumstances will Dacus Library lend the following items: 

1. Reference materials and other non-circulating items;
2. Materials in special collections;
3. Materials in poor condition (and / or more than 100 years old);
4. Materials that receive heavy in-house use;
5. Periodicals; and 
6. Books with a publication date of < 1 year.

Dacus Library will lend items to other libraries (U.S. only) for a period of six weeks.

Renewals are not normally granted, but will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Dacus Library will accept OCLC interlibrary loan requests and manual requests submitted on ALA forms via mail, email, or fax. We do not accept e-mail or phone requests.

Up to 50 pages of articles will be photocopied from journals (or books) owned by Dacus, provided it does not violate any copyright restrictions. Some journals may be bound too tightly to permit copying; Dacus is not permitted to lend journals in these cases.

Dacus Library will lend master's theses for the standard period of time (6 weeks). However, we have no means of making these available for purchase.

Where applicable, payment via OCLC IFM is preferred.

No overdue fines are charged to borrowing libraries. However, in order for the system to run smoothly, books should be returned promptly.

If an item is 90 days overdue, Dacus Library will initiate lost book charges. These charges include replacement charges for the lost item as well as a $10.00 processing fee. Charges for an out-of-print item are determined after consultation with the Collection Management Librarian.
The borrowing library is responsible for any items that are lost while in transit

Dacus Library sends copies through our interlibrary loan management system, Clio. In some cases, copies may be sent via Article Exchange or as attachments to e-mails. 

PLEASE NOTE: When a copy request is processed and placed In Transit through Clio, the Article Exchange section of the OCLC transaction record will be blank. To find the url and password for article access, scroll down the OCLC record to the Lending Information tab and look inside the Lending Notes field; it is there you will find everything you need to complete your side of the transaction.

Dacus Library is a reciprocal lender; we charge you what you would charge us in a role-reversal scenario.
Group Affiliations: LVIS , PASCAL , SO6 GAC/UL , SOLINE.

Dacus Library Quiet Areas, & Group Study Areas

Dacus Library is committed to maintaining an atmosphere conducive to research and study, while also supporting a range of scholarly activities and study styles.

• Quiet Areas: The study carrels on the ground floor and study rooms on the second floor are reserved for individual study and research; talking and group activities are not permitted in these areas.
• Group Study Areas (For Winthrop Students only): The main floor group meeting rooms are for use by study groups and class group projects. They are available by reservation from the link on the library homepage or the QR code on the study room door or window. The rooms are not to be used for social gatherings. Students are expected to keep conversations at a reasonably low level.
• Individual Study Rooms (For Winthrop Students only):  These rooms are located on the second floor along the front and back of the building.  Each room will comfortably accommodate one to two patrons. Some rooms have a computer, others have outlets for a laptop.  Two rooms are reservable and The others are available on a first-come, first-served basis. They are not to be used for social gatherings. Students are expected to keep conversations at a reasonably low level.
• Instruction and Service Areas:  The entire main floor and the Government Documents office and service desk on the second floor are patron service points. Though unreasonable noise levels in these areas should be reported to staff at the main desk, these are not quiet areas. Patrons who need a quiet study area will be directed to the second or ground floor quiet areas.
• Noise problems or other inappropriate behavior should be reported to the staff at the Information Commons. Patrons who refuse to comply with library rules will be asked to leave.