Faculty Loan Periods

To check out an item from any Sweet Briar library, simply present your college I.D. card along with the item. The book loan period for faculty is four months. Books may be renewed for a second term if no one else has requested it in the meantime. You can renew books once via LION. Materials may be recalled after 14 days if requested by another user. Videos and CDs circulate for 3-day periods. Periodicals, reference books, and materials from the Rare Book Room do not circulate without special permission from staff.

All library materials are due at the end of the academic year for the purposes of library inventory. Faculty who need books for longer than one year should consider purchasing their own copies. When three regular overdue notices have been sent and the item has not been renewed, the item will be considered lost and the faculty member will be billed for the replacement cost of the book, plus a $25.00 processing fee. Faculty are not charged overdue fines. Staff receive overdue notices but pay no overdue fines, until the above stated conditions relating to lost books apply.

Library materials are to be considered the property of the college and should be available to all users of the college libraries.

Reference And Research Services

The Cochran reference collection comprises some 2200 volumes, all shelved in the Reference Reading Room and the adjacent study gallery. Most periodical indexes are shelved in the Index Hall outside of the Kellogg library. Indexes to the older years of the New York Times are located on Stack Level One near the elevator. Most of our newer indexing is done online. To consult the newest indexes, and full-text databases, see Databases.

Other reference books line the walls in Library of Congress call number order. Reference collections in the disciplines appropriate to the branch libraries are located in those libraries. Faculty are encouraged to make recommendations for additions to the reference collection to Lisa Johnston.

Interlibrary Loans

An Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service is provided for library materials not available at Sweet Briar. We recommend that you submit ILL requests at least two weeks before you need the item.

The ILL code does not permit the use of borrowed materials for classroom reserves in most cases. The copyright law specifies that photocopies received through interlibrary loan are not to be used "for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research." The Library reserves the right to deny a copying request, if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would violate the copyright law.

Faculty and staff are responsible for any and all charges associated with ILL. To place an ILL request, please use the Interlibrary Loan form.

Bibliographic Instruction

Joe Malloy, Lisa Johnston and Liz Kent conduct Library Orientations, which are required of all incoming students. They also offer non-credit workshops and classes each term on advanced research skills, database searching, and on specialized topics such as research strategies in history or biology. They will give presentations to any class upon request. They may be reached at:

Joe Malloy:
Email: ljmalloy at sbc dot edu
Phone: 434-381-6307.

Liz Kent:
Email: lkent at sbc dot edu
Phone: 434-381-6315

Lisa Johnston:
Email: lnjohnston at sbc dot edu
Phone: 434-381-6306

Bibliographies or Guides

The reference staff will compile bibliographies or guides to the literature of any subject upon request. A collection of on-line library guides, are updated regularly by the library staff. If you do not see the topic you need on the guide list, please contact Liz Kent (x6315).

Book Ordering And Collection Development

Teaching faculty are responsible for working with the library faculty to ensure collections in departmental areas contain adequate and appropriate materials supporting undergraduate instruction. Requests should be approved by the department chair before they are submitted to the Library. Please request approved materials, by contacting your Library Liaison. Expenditure of allocated funds terminates at the end of the fiscal year, 30 June. Funds committed by 30 June are carried over to the next fiscal year. Funds not committed are lost.

Book requests may be directed to either your library faculty liaison by e-mail, campus mail or telephone or directly to the Acquisitions Department (x6310). Library faculty liaisons work with academic departments for the purpose of collection development. Questions on book orders, budget status, weeding and other matters dealing with the collection should be addressed to your liaison.

Departmental Liaison Assignments