Alma College faculty, staff and students may reserve a study carrel for one term. Priority is given to students whose course work would be facilitated by having a place to assemble library materials at the library. (If you don’t need to leave library materials at a carrel or think you won’t use one very often, you don’t need to reserve a carrel and are welcome to use reserved carrels when they are unoccupied.)
Students requesting a carrel must fill out the Carrel Request Form (available at the Circulation Desk), including their name, their address, the requested carrel number, the date and the signature of an Alma College Professor. Completed Carrel Request Forms will not be accepted at the Circulation Desk until the first day of regular classes for each term. Once the form has been turned in to the Circulation Desk, the library staff will process the request and notify the patron of his/her carrel assignment. If the requested carrel is not available, the library staff will assign a carrel in a nearby location. Carrel assignments are generally made on a first-come, first-served basis.
Checking out materials to carrels
- Books may be checked out to a carrel for the regular 3-week loan period. Single issue periodicals may be checked out to a carrel for the regular 2-day loan period. After this time they will be considered overdue unless renewed (single issue periodicals cannot be renewed). Overdue charges accrue, as with materials checked out normally.
- To check out items to carrels, take them to the Circulation Desk. A green slip with the due date, item title, call number and your carrel number will be placed in each item. Be sure that this slip stays with the item and that the top portion can be readily seen. This green slip shows the library staff that the item is checked out to your carrel and should not be reshelved by the library’s student assistants. Also, the materials checked out to your carrel will not be desensitized, so that they cannot be taken out of the library.
- To take these materials out of the library, bring them back to the Circulation Desk. The items will be desensitized and the green carrel check-out slip will be removed. To return these items to your carrel, be sure to have the circulation staff resensitize them and fill out a new green check-out slip.
- You may not take items out of the library that are checked out to someone else’s carrel.
- Any library materials found in your carrel that are not properly checked out will be removed.
Other types of materials
- Reference books, bound periodicals, records, microfilm, Closed Collection materials, videos, VCRs, laptop computers and CDs may not be checked out to carrels. If they are found in your carrel, they will be removed.
Miscellaneous policies
- The library is not responsible for personal items left in carrels.
- Your carrel may be used by other library patrons when you are not using it. When you are not present, please keep materials stacked and piled neatly. Loose papers on the desk top may be thrown out by library staff.
- Obscene or unlawful materials cannot be left on display in your carrel. These items will be removed by the library staff.
- All materials left in your carrel after the last day of exams will be removed.
Revised July 2011.
