Forrer Learning Commons Library Services: About Library Services: Circulation Policies

Eligible Patrons

All patrons must hold a valid borrower's card. Below is a list of eligible patrons:

BC faculty, staff, and their spouses and children
BC students
BC alumni
BC Board members
Community residents of Rockingham, Augusta, and Highland counties
Eastern Mennonite University employees and students
James Madison University employees and students
Mary Baldwin College employees and students
Shenandoah University employees and students
All other VIVA institutions employees and students

Borrowing Information

Identification:

A valid college ID or library borrower's card must be presented for each check-out. The library will retain a patron's card as collateral while a laptop or reserve is checked out. Borrowers are prohibited from permitting others to use their college ID.

Renewals:

General Books, DVDs, and other general circulating items may be renewed once. Books will renew for half their original loan period. DVDs and Bestsellers will renew for their original loan period.
Patrons may renew items in person, by phone, or by e-mail to circulation@bridgewater.edu. Faculty, staff, and students also have the option to renew from their Discovery account.
Items may not be renewed if they are on hold by another patron.
To renew interlibrary loan items, you must contact the ILL service (ILL@bridgewater.edu) at least 3 days in advance so that the lending library can verify the renewal.

Replacements:

Borrowers are responsible for the replacement fee if an item is not returned or is damaged. Charges will be placed on all student accounts for items not returned within 14 days after the end of each semester. Administrator accounts are managed on a case-by-case basis.

Holds:

Patrons may place a hold through the library website by clicking on the selected item and then the hold button. It may take up to 72 hours to fulfill holds once items are available. Patrons will be notified when the item is ready for pick up. Item will be held at the circulation desk for 1 week. Holds are processed Monday through Friday.

Recalls:

Faculty may recall items. Please allow at least two business days from the date of recall.

Reciprocal Borrowing:

Borrowing privileges are available for BC students, staff, and faculty at Eastern Mennonite University, James Madison University, Shenandoah University, and Mary Baldwin College. BC patrons must abide by the rules of those libraries when borrowing their materials. More information can be found on the VIVA website.

Mail Order Borrowing:

Students who are learning remotely and wish to check out physical materials from the library may request them to be mailed to their house. Should you wish to borrow a material, simply email all relevant information about the item to ill@bridgewater.edu along with your mailing address. We will mail the item to you and provide both a return label and a package to mail the item back to us.

Loan Periods

Material	Students	Faculty/Staff	Community
General & Reference Books	60 days	120 days	60 days
DVDs/CDs & Periodicals	7 days	14 days	7 days
Bestsellers Books	up to 5 items for 30 days	up to 5 items for 30 days	up to 5 items for 30 days
Course Reserves	3 hours 24 hours or 3 day limits may be available	3 hours 24 hours or 3 day limits may be available	May not check out course reserve items
Laptops	3 hours May be available for extended checked out with IT permission for 10 days	3 hours May be available for extended checkout with IT permission for 10 days	May not check out laptops
Equipment	4 days	4 days	May not check out these items
Special Collections Materials	Do Not Circulate	Do Not Circulate	Do Not Circulate
Interlibrary loans (ILLs)	Determined by the lending library	Determined by the lending library	Determined by the lending library

Lending of Electronic Devices

Purpose:

The primary purpose of the library’s media equipment collection is to support students and their creations of digital class projects. Equipment may be used by faculty, staff, and students for non-class projects as available.

General Guidelines:

Patrons are responsible for the replacement fee (as listed below) if a device is not returned OR is returned damaged or with missing parts. Returning the device does not clear borrowers from responsibility if the device is damaged while in their possession. Equipment must be returned to the Circulation Desk and may not be returned through the outside book drop. Patrons are responsible for ensuring that all parts of the device are present before returning and that any personal data/files are cleared from the device. Patrons are expected to abide by the Bridgewater College Policy on Computer Usage available in the IT Center’s Knowledgebase.

Loan Periods:

Bridgewater students, faculty, and staff may check out Media Equipment for 4 days. Laptops circulate for 3 hours; if you need a laptop for a longer period, you must request this by emailing help@bridgewater.edu. Community Patrons may not check out media equipment. To check media equipment availability, visit the library’s Media Equipment webpage.

Extended Loans:

Loan requests beyond 4 days will be considered on a case-by-case basis before the item is checked out. Please use the following form to initiate an extended loan request: http://bridgewater.libwizard.com/extendedbooking. Questions about extended loans can be sent to circulation@bridgewater.edu.

Charges:

After 14 days overdue, an item will be considered LOST and the patron will be billed for a replacement item. Replacement costs are based on the equipment cost listed in the item record plus an additional $20 processing fee.