Library Policies

• Loan Period
• Library Cards
• Fine Policies
• Privacy_Issues
• Honors Projects
• West Seneca Campus Shuttle
• Video Viewing
• Reserve Readings: Procedures for Faculty

Loan Periods

Faculty:

• Books: 365 days. (Note: if a student needs any item on loan to a faculty member, the library will recall the item, requesting its immediate return. If the faculty member wishes to check the item out again, the library can have the item held after the student returns it.)
• Periodicals: Due by closing the next day.
• Videos: 4 weeks.
• CDs and LPs: 28 days.
• Scores: 365 days.
• Reserve material: Determined by the faculty member placing materials on reserve.

• Books: 84 days. (Note: if a student needs any item on loan to a staff member, the library will recall the item, requesting its immediate return. If the staff member wishes to check the item out again, the library can have the item held after the student returns it.)
• Periodicals: Due by closing the next day.
• Videos: 3 days.
• CDs and LPs:28 days.
• Scores: 84 days.
• Reserve material: Determined by the faculty member placing materials on reserve.

• Books: 14 days, with two renewals.
• Periodicals: Due by closing the next day.
• Videos: 3 days.
• CDs and LPs: Allowed to use these items in the library only.
• Scores: 2 weeks.
• Reserve material: Determined by the faculty member placing materials on reserve.

Library Cards

Your Houghton College identification card (ID) is your library card.

Courtesy Cards
Courtesy cards will be issued to any immediate family members of faculty or staff who are 12 years of age or older. Family members will be given a circulation period of 14 days.

Non-college-related community members may request a courtesy card. Area residents who live outside of Houghton but within a fifty (50) mile radius, may purchase a courtesy card for five dollars ($5) per year.

Fine Policies (Students and Courtesy Card Holders) 

• Overdue 2-week loans: $0.10 per day.
• Overdue periodicals: $1.00 per day.
• Overdue reserve materials: $1.00 per hour.
• Overdue videos: $1.00 per day.
• Overdue ILL: varies according to lending Library

Privacy Issues

To protect the patron's right of privacy, library staff may not legally disclose who checked an item out. Please do not ask for this information. Any patron needing a book already checked out should have circulation personnel place a "HOLD" on the item and notify him/her when it is returned. If library material is checked out to a person who has circulation privileges for more than 14 days (i.e. administrators, staff and faculty), the library will "RECALL" the item for the patron.

Honors Projects

Students doing independent studies, honor projects or senior seminar work may obtain an extended loan period. A signed letter from a faculty member to the library requesting the extension will activate this privilege. Or ask library staff for the form which can be filled in by the student and signed by the faculty member.

West Seneca Campus Shuttle

The West Seneca Campus collection is listed in the on-line computer catalog (GRACE; the circulation screen displays "LOCATION: Buffalo Campus"). Any of those materials will be shuttled to the main campus upon request. Main campus books will be shuttled to Buffalo Campus upon the request of Buffalo Suburban Campus students or faculty. Shuttle system is via US mail and can usually be filled within a few days.

Reserve Materials

Reserve Readings: Procedures for Faculty

We ask that faculty place only those materials on reserve that need to be used by a large percentage of the class.

The Library's Policy on Video Viewing

I. Background

The revised COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976, Title 17 of the U.S. Code, Sections 101-810 regulates the use of all copyrighted materials including videocassettes. The law gives the author or originator of certain works the exclusive rights concerning production, distribution, and public performance. Specifically, Section 110 entitled "Limitations on exclusive rights: exemption of certain performances and displays," describes two principles which have become the foundation of the guidelines developed by academic libraries for the in-library viewing of library-owned videos. The two principles have become known as "fair use" (most fully discussed in Section 107) and "educational use" (see Section 110-1).

"The following are not infringements of copyright: performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audio-visual work, the performance . . . is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made . . . ." (Section 110-1).

II. Application

Because an academic library may be considered "a similar place devoted to instruction," we assume that the classroom exemption also protects showings of videotapes in the college library if the requirements of Section 110 are met.

The classroom requirements are: (1) Use must be by members of a class - teacher or students, (2) Use must be in connection with teaching activities, (3) The class must be involved in the teaching activity and must be in the same general area or room - "face-to-face," (4) The teaching must be conducted by a nonprofit educational institution, (5) Use must be in a classroom or similar place of instruction, (6) The videotape must be lawfully made.

III. Policy

Thus, the viewing of videotapes in the library will be restricted by the following guidelines:

• Showings of a videotape in the viewing room (or any other public room in the library) for a cultural program or for entertainment, whether a fee is charged or not, would be considered infringement (unless a performance license is acquired from the copyright owner).
• Only videotapes that are part of the library collection may be viewed in the library's viewing room.
• Since viewing of videotapes in the library must be part of the instructional activities of the college, only those videos that are assigned by a professor may be viewed in the library's viewing room.
• If a professor assigns the viewing of a videotape by members of the entire class, the library requests that the faculty member place the tape on RESERVE. At the time the tape is checked out by a student, a key to the viewing room will also be issued. (The student's ID will be kept as a deposit until the key is returned.)
• If a professor assigns the viewing of a library-owned videotape to one student in a class or a small portion of the class, and if the student or the small group wishes to view the tape in the library's viewing room, a written statement from the professor apprising the library staff of the assignment is requested. This written request is not necessary if the film is being placed on RESERVE. At the time that the tape is checked out by the student, a key to the viewing room will also be issued. (ID will be held as a key deposit.)
• Only students in the class for which the video was assigned should be in the viewing room at the time of the showing.
• Notices are posted on the library's video recorder or player to warn or educate users about the existence of the copyright laws. (Notice shall read: MANY VIDEOTAPED MATERIALS ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT. 17 U.S.C. SECTION 101 UNAUTHORIZED COPYING MAY BE PROHIBITED BY LAW.) Users of the library's videotapes should, under no circumstances, duplicate the videos that are being viewed.
• Due to the limited space in the Music Library, only those music-related videotapes which are assigned by the faculty, and which are better viewed with a score or other music-related resources, may be viewed in the listening rooms of the Music Library.

Library-related questions to Brad Wilber.
Library webpage-related questions to Glen Avery
Updated February 7, 2006