Library Borrowing Privileges

The circulation policies of Pierce College Library and Learning Resources are designed to enhance the ease with which library users obtain and return materials, while at the same time protecting and conserving state and college resources.  This policy recognizes the following categories of users:

  • Students: Persons who are currently enrolled either full-time or part-time in a course or program of study offered by Pierce College District 11 and students currently registered at other Washington State Community/Technical Colleges and Central Washington University at Pierce College.
  • Faculty: Persons who are employed either full-time or part-time by Pierce College District 11.
  • Faculty Emeritus: Retired faculty, from Pierce College District 11, in good standing with the college that retain faculty level privileges which are subject to annual renewal.
  • Administration: Persons who are employed full-time or part-time as exempt administrators by Pierce College District 11.
  • Staff: Persons who are employed either full-time or part-time as classified, part-time hourly, or exempt staff by Pierce College District 11. Employees that are registered for six or more credits are considered Students.
  • Community Users: Residents of the Pierce College District 11 community service area.
  • Institutional Users: All libraries and institutions of higher education who request the use of Library Services materials via the standard, established interlibrary loan protocols of the American Library community.

Nothing in this set of policies should be considered to abrogate any agreements entered into by the Learning Commons Library Services to provide services or resources to special user groups.

Borrowing

When borrowing materials from Pierce College Library Services, patrons are expected to assume the following responsibilities:

  • Pierce College students must present Pierce College photo I.D. for all checkouts.  Pierce College staff, faculty and faculty emeritus may present any picture I.D. for checkouts.   Community borrowers must show a state Driver’s license or other picture I.D. Students from other colleges must show their college I.D. card plus a copy of their current class schedule.
  • Pierce College students may check out up to 30 items at any one time.
  • Central Washington University at Pierce students may have 20 items at any one time (limited to circulating books, periodicals and DVDs).
  • Washington State Community/Technical College students may have 20 items at any one time (limited to circulating books, periodicals and DVDs, no interlibrary loan services).
  • Return borrowed materials by their due date.
  • Honor requests to return materials placed on hold by other patrons.
  • Reimburse the Library Services for any outstanding fine.

Patrons are charged for the following:

  • Replacement of lost or damaged materials and equipment.
  • Cataloging and “out-of-print” fees associated with lost or damages.
  • Fees assessed by lending libraries for interlibrary loan services.
  • Other fees or charges levied by an outside agency for services, materials, equipment, etc.

Suspension of Borrowing Privileges

Borrowing privileges for students, faculty, faculty emeritus, administration, staff and institutional users may be suspended or revoked in the following circumstances:

  • The patron owes Library Services $5.00 or more in unpaid fines or other charges.
  • Patrons have not met the financial obligations imposed by outside agencies (e.g., lending libraries for interlibrary loan transactions, online search services, reciprocal borrowing from other Washington State Community/Technical Colleges, etc.).
  • Students may also be subject to having inability to register, add or drop classes.

Community User accounts will be cancelled and borrowing privileges suspended for at least six months under the following circumstances:

  • Failure to return borrowed materials within seven days of written notification that the materials are needed by an on-campus user or are overdue.
  • Failure to reimburse Library Services for lost or damaged materials within 30 days of assessed charges.

Exceptions to the aforementioned conditions are subject to special permission of the Library Services administration or Library faculty.

Loan Periods

Pierce College Students

Students may borrow/checkout materials for the following time periods:

  • Books may be borrowed for 21 days.
  • CDs, DVDs, periodicals, and newspapers may be borrowed for 7 days.
  • Materials from the “Reserve Collection” are for Pierce College student use only and are loaned for periods set by the course instructor.  No more than one reserve item can be checked out at any one time.  Majority of the reserve collection are for In Library Use Only.
  • Reference materials are for In Library Use Only.
  • Headphones are available for In Library Use Only.
  • Reserve DVDs may be borrowed for 2 hours In Library Use Only (limit 1 item). 
  • Archival Materials: Library Services use only, except by special permission of Library Services administration or Library faculty.
  • Media Equipment: Loan period varies by media type.
  • Graphing Calculators: Loan period is for the current term.
  • Peter Hartman, Veterans Resource Center, and Running Start reserve collections: check out for the current term with department approval.
  • Interlibrary loans: Checkout is determined by lending library; current Pierce College and Central Washington University at Pierce students are limited to 5 active interlibrary loan requests at a time.

Pierce College Faculty, Faculty Emeritus, Staff, and Administration

Faculty, staff, and administration may borrow/check out materials for longer periods of time as required for instructional purposes.  Faculty Emeritus, not currently working for the college, are subject to existing material restrictions with no override privileges.

Community Users

Community users may borrow up to 2 items at any one time and may renew items one time.

  • Books may be borrowed for 21 days.
  • Magazines may be borrowed for 7 days.
  • Other Library Services Materials are not available for loan.

Institutional Users

  • Circulating books may be borrowed for 21 days.

Other Library Services Materials are not available for loan except by special permission of Library Services administration.

Renewals

  • Pierce College students and employees may renew materials once by phone (Fort Steilacoom 253-964-6547 or Puyallup 253-840-8300), in person or online via the Library website.
  • Loans for off-campus institutional users are not renewable except by special permission of a member of the Library Services administration or Library faculty.
  • Reserve materials are not renewable.

Holds

  • Library Services materials that circulate for 21 days may be recalled after three weeks at the request of another Library Services user who has placed a hold on those materials.
  • Any Library Services materials being used by an off-campus user or charged to an institutional user are subject to recall at any time at the request of another Library Services user who has placed a hold on those materials.

Check Out of Library Materials Between Terms

There is no student borrowing of materials between quarters. Faculty, Administration, and staff may checkout materials between terms; normal loan periods apply. 

Fines/Fees

Pursuant to college policy, Library patrons with a block on their account due to outstanding debts may be blocked from registering, waitlist, and adding/dropping classes until the debt has been paid in full.

Fines accrue as follows:

  • Users are charged replacement cost for lost/stolen/damaged library materials.
  • Users are charged replacement cost of $10.00 for a lost cable/plug for Chromebooks, laptops, hotspots, and calculators.
  • Interlibrary loans: minimum fine of $1.00; fine accrues at $1.00 per day per item; maximum fine or replacement cost to be determined by lending library.
  • Minor Damaged item(s) that require repair (ex: missing calculator cover, missing barcode, missing state ID): patron will be charged a $7.50 fine per damaged item.
  • For materials which are out of print, replacement cost will be a minimum of $15.00 or determined by the faculty librarian in charge of Technical Services.
  • Media Damage has four categories of fines:
        • Wear and tear – no fine
        • Minimal damage - $25
        • Extensive damage sent for repair - $80
        • Lost or damage beyond repair – replacement fee varies by item type. Please refer to item’s bag tag.

Full payment with cash or credit card can be made at the library. The library cannot take back any items that have been replaced without approval by the faculty librarian in charge of Technical Services. Other types of payment may be done at the cashier’s office during business hours.  Student record and registration blocks will remain in effect until the entire debt is paid in full. 

Patrons may appeal to the Dean of Library and Learning Resources for consideration of special or extenuating circumstances regarding their debt.

Pierce College Faculty, Faculty Emeritus, Staff, and Administration Borrowers

Overdue notices are sent on the same time schedule as all other borrowers.  Faculty/staff are responsible for replacement cost of lost/damaged items.  Copies of replacement bills for faculty and staff may be sent to the Dean of Library and Learning Resources for further action.  Staff and (part-time) faculty and faculty emeritus members must clear the library upon leaving Pierce College.  All replacement fines must be resolved before the clearance is signed.

Interlibrary Loans

In cases where Library Services is unable to obtain information or materials using its own   collections, it will attempt to locate such information or materials using the interlibrary loan process.  Interlibrary loans will be subject to standard nationally accepted protocols and practices, and will also recognize informal agreements with local area libraries.  All efforts will be made to borrow from a “free of charge” lending library, but there may be times when the only library that has the requested item charges a processing fee which may be charged to the patron.  Interlibrary loan services should be for academic use and are available to the following classes of Pierce College users only:  students, Central Washington University at Pierce students, staff, faculty, faculty emeritus working on college business, and administration.

Lending institutions set material loan periods which are frequently not renewable, nor can Library Services initiate a duplicate request for the loan of a title already checked out to a user.  Library users are responsible for any and all associated fees assessed by the lending library; however, they will not be charged lending/copy fees without their prior consent.  Patrons are expected to return materials by their date due or be subject to fines.  Pierce College will not borrow textbooks or items that the college already has in its collection.

Students will receive an email notifying them when items are available for pick up.  A reminder notice will be sent out if an item is not picked up within seven business days of original notification.  Students who do not pick up requested interlibrary loan items 3 times will lose interlibrary loan privileges for the quarter.

Pierce College District Students

Interlibrary loan services will be provided to students who are currently enrolled in Pierce College, Central Washington University at Pierce College and any other college/university that contracts with the Pierce College district for services.  Students may have up to 5 (five) active interlibrary loan requests at any given time.  If the only library that has the requested item charges a processing fee, the fee must be paid in advance of the request being placed.  If the request is denied by the lending library the full amount of the processing fee will be refunded.  A refund will not be given if the student decides not to use the material after the request has been sent. 

Interlibrary loan items that have been lost, damaged, or stolen are subject to the owning library’s fee schedule.  Pierce College will contact the lending library to assess a replacement cost for the item including any associated processing fees.  The student will be notified of the cost and billed for the full amount.  Pierce College will pay the lending library for the item and the student will reimburse Pierce College for the lost, damaged, or stolen items.  Students with a block on their account due to outstanding debts may be blocked from registering, waitlist, and adding/dropping classes until it has been paid.  If Pierce College is not reimbursed by a designated date, the student may be sent to debt collections.

Employee of Pierce College: Faculty, Faculty Emeritus, Staff, and Administration

Faculty, faculty emeritus, staff, and administrative employees of Pierce College may have no limit on active interlibrary loan requests for academic purposes.  Any processing fees charged by lending libraries will be paid by Pierce College (except in rare instances when the processing fee is deemed cost prohibitive).

Interlibrary loan items that have been lost, damaged, or stolen are subject to the owning libraries fee schedule.  Pierce College will contact the lending library to assess a replacement cost for the item including any associated processing fee.  The employee will be notified of the cost and billed for the full amount.  Pierce College will pay the lending library for the item and the employee will reimburse Pierce College for the lost, damaged, or stolen items.  If Pierce College is not reimbursed by a designated date, the employee may be sent to debt collections.

Dated: January 2022