Library News

Beginning in early January, the Z. Smith Reynolds Library will charge overdue fines on DVDs.After a two day grace period, fines will accrue at $1 a day.If the DVD has been recalled by someone else, overdue fines will accrue at $5 a day.As this will be unwelcome news for some of our patrons, we would like to explain why we have come to this decision.

We have long had a problem with borrowers who check out DVDs from the collection and then neglect to return them until long after the due date.Our DVD collection is very heavily used, and we only own one copy of most DVDs.One person keeping an item beyond its due date can impact many others who want to use it.

More often than not, emails sent indicating an item is overdue or has been recalled get no response, and we do not have access to telephone numbers for the majority of our borrowers.Therefore, we are implementing these fines, not to penalize delinquent borrowers, but to benefit our entire community of users.

We are also implementing other changes which should ease matters for those who may need DVDs longer than 3 days.We will email courtesy notices to borrowers one day before the due date.As long as the DVD in question does not have a hold or recall placed on it by another patron, the borrower will be able to renew it twice, for three-day periods.We will publicize the link to the website where eligible items may be renewed.We will continue to work with faculty to be sure their needs for items related to course instruction are met.

We hope the fine structure will not discourage usage of the collection and that it will make our DVDs more readily available to all our patrons.If you have any questions about this policy, please contact Mary Beth Lock, Head of Access Services, at ext. 6140 or lockmb@wfu.edu.

Check out our renovation and construction photos: ZSR Renovations 2008!

The construction season will begin in ZSR on May 9th with the emptying of the front two “24 hour” study rooms, and the simultaneous removal of the shelving from the Periodicals Room.

Once the Periodicals Room is emptied, the furniture from the 24 hour rooms, (except for the huge study carrels, which will be disposed of) is going to be moved up to the Periodicals Room to be redeployed through out the library over the next few weeks. The couches from the Rhoda’s side will end up in the new Mandelbaum Reading Room.

The coke and snack machines are being relocated to the hallway outside of room 204. The lockers will be in the Reynolds 2 hallway by the study rooms.

Beginning on Monday, May 12, the usual entrance to the library will be closed. The new entrance will be through the door closest to the parking lot in the Atrium, west side. Signage will be posted beginning Friday, May 9. The exit desk and the gate will be moved on May 12.

To reserve a study room, go to Study Room Reservations.

ZSR has implemented a study room reservation system that is completely online to allow students to reserve one of its 7 study rooms. Click on the “Study Rooms” link from the ZSR homepage or bookmark the link. Any currently registered student can choose to request an available room for up to two hours per day. Reservations can be made in segments from half an hour to two hours long, but students can only reserve two hours total per day. Students can make reservations up to 5 days in advance. WFU username and password are required to make the reservation.