Obtaining a library
card
Patrons must have a library card in order to check out either circulating
or reserve materials here in the library, or to use any special library
services offered to distance education students. In order to obtain
a library card, library staff must be able to verify your status as
a student, staff, or faculty member of Durham Technical Community College.
If you obtain your card in person from the Durham Tech library or from
one of our branches, we will need to see your Durham Tech ID card to
which we will add our library barcode before adding you to our library
system. If you are a student taking only distance education courses
and wish to receive a library card via the US mail, we must be able
to verify your status using the Colleague system. In either case, the
library card application must be filled out completely.
Special services exclusively for distance education
learners
Special library services, such as sending library cards and books or
other materials to patrons via US mail, are limited to students who
are taking *only* distance education courses—i.e., students who
are not taking any courses that require them to be on campus. We reserve
the right to check your records in order to verify your student status
and which classes you are taking.
Circulation policies for checking out materials by
mail to distance learners
The library is only able to send books (limit two at one time) to distance
learners; we will not mail audiovisual materials, journals or newspapers,
or materials that are on reserve here in the library. Checkout time
is three weeks, and materials may be renewed once for another three
weeks *if* the renewal request is made before the books are overdue.
Books must be returned in a timely manner and in good condition before
requests for additional books may be made. Please return books either
by mail (a mailing label will be provided in the package in which you
receive your books), to the Durham Tech library circulation desk or
to our drop box located right outside the Educational Resources Center,
or to another community college library. Please do not return books
to public libraries, other university libraries (such as Duke or UNC),
or any other libraries—there is no way to be sure that materials
returned to one of these libraries will be returned timely if at all.
If books are lost or damaged, users will be charged replacement costs.
Interlibrary loan services for distance learners
We are happy to request books from other libraries on behalf of our
distance education learners. Libraries who loan us books set the borrowing
conditions of these books, such as the due date and whether an item
may be renewed, and our patrons must abide by these conditions. Journal
articles from other libraries may also be requested; however, sometimes
there is a fee charged by other libraries for photocopying or faxing
articles. When this is the case, Durham Tech library must pass this
fee on to the person who made the interlibrary loan request. If you
wish to limit your request to materials that are free only, please indicate
this on the interlibrary loan request form (this is done by leaving
the box at the bottom unchecked, beside the sentence that begins “I
agree to pay any costs….”.
Using your library card at other libraries
In addition to services from the Durham Technical Community College
libraries, including our main libraries and our branches, our patrons
may use a valid Durham Tech library card to borrow books from other
community college libraries or to borrow up to two books from North
Carolina Central University.
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