CIRCULATION

Borrowing Procedures | Delivery Services | DVD Collection | Faculty Circulation Guide | Loan Periods | Lost Material | Return Procedures

Circulating Collections

The College of Law Library is primarily a research facility. As a result, much of the collection, such as journals, reporters, codes, encyclopedias, and multi-volume treatises, does not circulate outside the building. Some of these volumes may circulate within the law building to faculty offices and student carrels. For more information about circulation, please contact the Circulation staff.

Material missing from the shelves should be reported through a Search Request form available at the Circulation Desk. Library staff will search for the item. If the item cannot be located, and the patron makes a request, the staff person will attempt to obtain the material through interlibrary loan.

Borrowing Procedures

University of Iowa borrowers must present a current and authorized University of Iowa identification card.

Members of the Iowa Bar may borrow Law Library material with a special bar-coded card obtained after completing a form available at the Circulation Desk.

Non-University of Iowa persons may not borrow materials directly from the Law Library but may request materials through interlibrary loan at their local library.

Loan Periods

Circulating Law Library materials are subject to a recall at any time. Revised due dates are communicated via email. If a recalled item is not returned by the revised due date, borrowing privileges may be restricted.

Loan periods for circulating books and treatises vary according to the status of the borrower and the type of material.

* The Legal Fiction Collection has a two week loan period for all borrowers.

Return Procedures

All circulating library materials must be returned to the Law Library Circulation Desk by their due date. If materials are not returned by the due date, the borrower will be notified. Borrowers receive two notices via email before a bill is issued from the University Business Office.

Lost Material

Library users will be billed for unreturned items according to the general University policy regarding replacement of lost library materials:

• All library materials checked out must be returned by their due date.

• The library charges users for material not returned to the library by the due date. If materials are not returned, the borrower will be notified. Borrowers receive two notices via e-mail before a bill is issued. The following schedule is used for sending overdue notices.

• All billing for lost items will be done through the University Business Office. Any correspondence concerning lost items should be directed to Law Library Circulation.

• Shortly after the billing notice is sent, the library will process the billing for the missing item through the University Billing Office. The borrower will be charged, first, for the cost to replace the item; and second, a $10 processing fee for each item. If the item is returned to the Law Library after billing, but before the library has purchased a replacement, the replacement charge will be credited to the borrower's account. However, the borrower is still responsible for paying the $10 per item processing charge.

Delivery Services

Library users may request materials owned by any University of Iowa Library be delivered to another campus library for pickup or office delivery. Requests may be placed through Smart Search or the InfoHawk catalog. The following items are excluded from this service:

• State Historical Society of Iowa materials.
• Materials that circulate for 7 days or less cannot be sent to an office. Materials that circulate for 3 days or less cannot be sent to another library for pickup.
• Reserve and Reference items are not available for delivery service. Law Library Building Items and Shelf Copies are not eligible for delivery service.
• Many collections may have additional circulation restrictions. Staff at the owning library will contact you if material is not located or is not included in the delivery service.
• Items will not be retrieved for pickup at the same library. (Main Storage and Main Media materials may be picked up at any library.)
• Office delivery is not available to Law student carrels.
• Office delivery is not available to students living in the dorms.

For more information, please visit University Libraries Delivery Services.

Law, Lawyers, and Popular Culture DVD Collection

Members of the law school community (law students, faculty, and staff) may borrow DVDs from the Law, Lawyers, and Popular Culture (LexPopuli) DVD collection. Click here to connect to a list of titles in the collection. Users may borrow up to three DVDs at one time, for a period of three days. DVDs are checked out from Special Services in Room 130. When leaving the library, users must have circulation staff hand the DVDs around the security gate. DVDs must be returned only to the Circulation Desk or Special Services in Room 130.

Faculty Circulation Guide

Borrowing

Law faculty may borrow Law Library materials to take to their offices. The loan period is based on the type of material. Materials marked "Shelf Copy" do not circulate. "Shelf Copy" materials include state codes, digests, Shepard's citators, certain copies of reporters and journals and "high use" treatises. Materials designated REF, DOC REF, TAX TABLE, OR INDEX TABLE also do not circulate.

Recall

Books checked out to offices are to remain in that office (journals, reporters, etc., may not be taken out of the Law Building). All items are subject to "recall" if requested by another patron but will ordinarily be recalled only after two weeks have passed from the time they were borrowed. Faculty should respond immediately if they receive a notice that an item has been recalled. Failure to respond to notices may block borrowing privileges. The library staff can make arrangements to return the item as soon as possible.

Retrieval from Office by Library Staff

On occasion, a library staff member may need to retrieve a publication. If the faculty member is not in, a library staff member may enter the faculty office, retrieve the publication, and leave a signed form indicating which publication has been removed. The item will be returned within twenty-four hours unless the staff member has made other arrangements with the faculty member.

Return and Renewal

At the end of the semester, faculty members receive an e-mail notice that library materials will be due in one week. Faculty should return library materials that are no longer needed to the Circulation Desk or renew items still required. Faculty also may contact the Circulation Desk (5-9002) to arrange pickup of borrowed materials. Materials lost or unaccounted-for will be billed to the faculty member. Overdue materials and billing procedures are outlined in the Library Services for Law Faculty (PDF*) guide and in the Lost Material section above.

Proxy Borrowers

If faculty members wish to have Research Assistants or Secretaries obtain books for them, a "Faculty Authorization for a Research Assistant" form must be completed at the Law Library Circulation Desk. Upon completion, RAs and secretaries are given a proxy card which permits them to check out items from other University libraries as well as from the Law Library on behalf of the faculty member. Faculty members are ultimately responsible for any items Research Assistants or secretaries borrow using this proxy card.

*This download is a PDF file. If you don't already have Adobe Reader (the application necessary to read PDF files), you can download it free by clicking the button below: