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Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library Policies

All of the library's policies are posted here. Find information about our policies relating to collection development, public access, filming, services and more.

Reserves Office

Located in HA-112, behind the Circulation/Reserves Desk, Reserves is part of the Public Services Department.

Office Hours:

Monday through Friday
8 a.m. - 5 p.m.


Pick Your Items Up & Return Them at the Circulation/Reserves Desk

Hours: same as the Library


Contact us:
eresmanager@fitchburgstate.edu
(978) 665-3063

Sarah Gilbert, Public Services Library Assistant
(978) 665-4824

Matthew Borneman, Public Services Library Assistant
(978) 665-3762

General Reserves Policy

The Course Reserve Service is provided for all Fitchburg State faculty and students in on-campus, distance learning and extended campus programs. Faculty may place personal, departmental or library items on Reserve at any time during the semester for use by the students in their course(s). Any type of item such as books, DVDs, special equipment or kits (microscopes, slides, human skeleton, etc.), photographs, articles, and so on may be put at the physical Reserves Desk, online through our Digital Reserves, or both as applicable. At the end of the semester, the Reserves staff will email each professor the usage statistics for the items they had on reserve.

Reserves Desk (also part of the Circulation Desk)

Physical reserve items are maintained on the shelving located in the Public Services Office behind the Circulation/Reserves Desk. The items are placed under the name of the professor or department that requested they be put on reserve. All reserve items are listed online in our Library Catalog, click on Physical Reserves and search by professor or course name.

Students should present their Fitchburg State One Card at the Circulation Desk in order to check out a reserve item. Reserve items have short borrowing periods. This is to ensure that the items are available for all of the students in the class to be able to use it. The professor who places the item on reserve determines the length of the borrowing period. The borrowing periods are:

  • 2-hour, in-library-use only: These items cannot leave the library and should be renewed if needed longer than 2 hours.
  • 1-Day: The item may leave the library overnight but is due the next day.
  • 3-Day: The item may leave the library but is due back on the 3rd day.
  • 1-Week: The item may leave the library but is due back on the 7th day.

Due dates are strictly enforced and fines will be assessed for items that returned late as follows:

Loan Period Fine Rate Maximum Fine
2 hours $1/hour per item $5.00 per item
1 day, 3 day & 1 week $5.00/day per item $15.00 per item

Students with unpaid fines/lost fees on their account will have their borrowing privileges blocked until the account balance has been cleared. The professor may also be notified, in the case of an overdue reserve item. Students may be limited as to the number of Reserve items they can sign out at one time from the same professor to ensure that all students have a chance to access the material.

Digital Reserves

Access to digital reserves items is provided through the Digital Course Reserves guide. On the guide, digital reserve items are listed under the name of the professor or department that requested they be put on reserve. Digital Reserves consists of two components:

  • Some material such as eBooks and articles from the library's online collections can be accessed immediately by simply clicking on the provided link in the Digital Course Reserves guide.
  • Library staff can scan printed materials (within copyright allowances) and load the documents/files into our controlled digital lending system or you may email your files to us to load. This is a password protected system. Due to copyright restrictions, these items can only be used by one person at a time and cannot be printed or downloaded. To see if the item is available, students use the chat feature on the left side of the Digital Course Reserves guide to receive a link for temporary access. The digital lending period for these items is 2 hours at the end of which the temporary access to the content will self-destruct.