Circulation Policy

Selected government publication monographs circulate with the permission of the Government and Geographic Information and Data Services Reference Desk staff. Staff members reserve the right to disallow particular monographs to circulate for reasons including condition, fragility, rarity, and location (e.g., Reference). All materials are circulated through the Main Library Circulation Desk. All patrons with a current Northwestern WildCARD or a Borrower's Card may checkout materials. Policies regarding borrowers, loan periods, holds, recalls, fines, etc. will be those that are in effect for the Main Library. These policies can be found at http://www.library.northwestern.edu/circulation/index.html.

The main function of Reference Desk staff is to provide reference service. Reference Desk staff reserve the right to ask borrowers to return at a later time, but not later than the next day the department is open, to pick up books they wish to take out. This is because the collection is not circulation-ready and Reference Desk staff must create item records for, bar code, and pocket some materials for circulation. It may not be possible to do this as the borrower waits if other patrons are waiting for reference assistance.

The following materials circulate:
Dewey classified monographs with NUCat records
U.S. Federal monographs with records already in NUCat
CD-ROMS/diskettes housed in the cabinets.
"In Process" monographs but ONLY after they have been fully catalogued.

The following materials do NOT circulate:
CD-ROMS/diskettes in the CD racks on top of the cabinets
Serials and periodicals including Annuals
Monographs (both Dewey and SuDocs classified) without Voyager records or those considered rare or fragile.
Volumes of the U.S. Serial Set
Reference Room, Supplementary Reference, and Legal Materials
Census items
Pamphlets - If an item is four or fewer copied pages, staff will provide a photocopy for the patron.
Maps - With the availability of an oversize copier, maps are normally a non-circulating resource. Exceptions are made at the discretion of the maps librarian (or in her absence, the head of the dept). These may include maps too large for the copier, the user desires a color copy, or the user is a professor or lecturer and requires a large map to display in a class. Rare and/or brittle maps do not circulate under any circumstance

U.S. Federal Documents Collection
Government Information
University Library
Northwestern University
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-2300
c-henriques@northwestern.edu
(847) 491-3130

Last updated: 6/19/08