Circulation Policies

All users of the R. A. Williams Library must have a current mailing address and email address or phone number on file to borrow materials. If a user has a University-issued email address, the library will use that email address as the primary email.

Classes of users who have borrowing privileges:

• AHU students
• AHU faculty, staff, and adjunct faculty
• AHU alumni
• AdventHealth employees
• Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists employees (including Adventist pastors working in Florida)

Users who do not fall into any of the above classes may use library materials within the library, but may not check out any items. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the library director or circulation coordinator.

Users must present an approved form of ID in order to checkout library materials. Approved forms of ID:

• AHU Students – Valid AHU student ID card
• AHU faculty, staff, and adjunct faculty – Valid AHU employee ID card
• AdventHealth Employees—Valid AdventHealth employee ID card
• Other users – Valid government-issued photo ID

The circulation coordinator may approve other forms of ID on an individual-user basis.

Additional borrowing restrictions:

• Users may not check out more than 15 items at one time.
• Users with overdue items may not check out additional items until the overdue items have been returned.
• Users with more than $10.00 in library fines may not check out anything until the fines have been paid.

The circulation coordinator may waive any of these restrictions at his or her discretion.

The purpose of reserves is to make high-demand materials readily available to many students within a relatively short time.

Course Reserves

Course reserves are materials, such as textbooks, made available to students for course reading assignments. Items that may be placed on course reserve include the following:

• All library materials, including books, periodicals, and videos. If the library does not own an item and it is a necessary part of AHU coursework, collection development will consider purchasing the item.
• Personal copies of journals, books, videos, or other media. The library cannot guarantee the safety of these items from damage or loss.
• Readings, lecture notes, course syllabi, and exams. Faculty are encouraged to provide a copy of the course syllabus when making course reserve requests.
• Audio or video recordings of lectures.

Items are selected for course reserves via the Ecampus list or Faculty request. Textbooks are placed on course reserve from the Ecampus course list as it becomes available through their website. We will acquire an eBook for reserves if it is available with unlimited user license first. Our second option will be to purchase with at least three users and finally, we will purchase a print copy to be placed in the course reserves section of the library.

The library typically only purchases one copy of the print. Reserve material that are in high demand by students can be evaluated for multiple copy purchases. Library staff reserves the right to reevaluate on a case-by-case basis should the situation arise.

Faculty can also request an item be placed on course reserve using the Reserve Request Form. If the library owns the item and it is readily available, it will be placed on reserve. If the library does not own the item, faculty may provide a personal copy or request that the library purchase the item.

Library Reserves

Library reserves are materials that the library staff have determined are high demand, but which are not course reserves. Any item in the library’s collection may be put on library reserve. Materials are place on library reserve at the discretion of the circulation coordinator and the collection development team. Library reserve materials may circulate for either 3 days or 2 hours, depending on the level of demand. Materials remain on library reserve until the circulation coordinator determines that demand no longer justifies it.

Overnight Checkout

Users checking out reserve materials within one hour of the library closing may request to take the materials overnight. The librarian on duty approves such requests at his or her discretion. Overnight materials are due at 9AM the following business day. Materials checked out overnight on Friday are due back Sunday at 4PM.

Because Reserve items are high demand, the penalty for late return is $24.00 dollars a day. In order to checkout reserve materials overnight, users must sign an R.A. Williams Library Reserve Overnight Checkout User Responsibility form agreeing to the due date and acknowledging the fine.

Faculty Use of Reserve Items

Faculty may check out reserve material for their allotted time of 2 hours. Should special circumstances arise, the faculty member may contact the circulation coordinator, who may grant a checkout of up to one week. All users are charged a fine for reserve items returned past their due date. Fines are $1.00 per hour for 2-hour reserve items and $25.00 per day for 3-day reserve items.

If an item is not returned within one week of the due date, it will be considered lost, and the user will be charged the replacement cost of the item .

See the Fines and Fees Policy for more information on replacement of lost items.

The R. A. Williams Library has several laptops available for checkout. Laptops may be checked out for five days and on a case-by-case basis with longer checkout times as needed. If the laptop is not returned on time, the user will be assessed a late fee of $1.00 per day. After eight days, past the due date, the laptop will be declared lost, and the user may be charged a replacement fee.

To check out a laptop, users must sign a Laptop Responsibility & Checkout Form.

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service that provides access to materials not owned by the R. A. Williams Library. Through cooperative agreements, participating libraries share their collections with users at other libraries. Possible requests include copies of articles or temporary loans of books, dissertations, and media items from lending libraries.

All AHU students, faculty, and staff may use the library’s ILL service. Other library users are asked to obtain ILL services through their local public library.

ILL requests may be made in person at the R. A. Williams Library or electronically by filling out the request form on the library website or emailing request@adu.libanswers.com.

Request Limits and Costs

Users may only request certain types of material via ILL. Not all of materials that may be requested are available, and the library cannot guarantee that a request will be filled. The following materials may be requested:

• Materials Usually Available
  • Copies of articles (some copyright limitations may apply)
  • Loans of circulating books, circulating theses, circulating dissertations, and circulating reports
  • Conference proceedings or copies of papers from the proceedings
• Materials Not Usually Available
  • Entire issues of journals
  • Rare, old, or fragile books (unless available on microfilm or microfiche)
  • Audiovisual materials
  • Recently-published books
  • Non-circulating items such as reserve or reference books

The following items may not be requested via ILL:

• Course textbooks
• Genealogical materials
• "Bestsellers" (Popular items currently in high demand and available at the public library)
• "Bestsellers" (Popular items currently in high demand and available at the public library)
• Audio-visual recordings owned by the library
• Popular films available through rental or streaming services
• Original manuscripts

If a user submits an ILL request for an item available in the library’s collection, the ILL staff will cancel the request and notify the user.

The library does not limit the number of requests a user may submit. The first 20 requests per person, per year (beginning of fall trimester to end of the following summer trimester) are free, except as provided below. If a user submits more than 20 ILL requests (combined books and articles) in on year, the user pays any charges of the lending institution. Regardless of the number of previous requests, there is never a charge when an ILL book or article request is necessary because the library’s copy is missing and has not been replaced.

Usually, the library’s ILL services are free to users. The library belongs to several regional library consortia and can get most requested materials without fees. However, the user is responsible for any fees above $30 per item. If an ILL request involves costs of more than $30.00 per item, the ILL staff will contact the user who submitted the request. The user may choose to pay all costs above $30 per item or cancel the request. Users are also responsible for any fines and/or replacement costs levied by the lending library for overdue or lost items.

Request Time

All ILL requests are processed as quickly as current staffing levels allow. Regular requests are processed within three business days, and rush requests within 24 hours. Physical loans take an average of 10 business days (two weeks) to arrive; photocopies take an average of 3 business days. Many requests will be filled more quickly; others may take much longer.

Rush Requests

Rush requests are available only on a case-by-case basis. The library staff limit rush requests because they slow down processing of normal requests and place a burden on lending libraries.

To submit a rush ILL request, users must contact the library’s ILL office by telephone or in person in addition to submitting a request using the online forms. The library cannot guarantee rush service on a request unless the user has spoken directly to the ILL staff.

Rush requests are processed within 24 hours and shipped per the user’s specifications. The ILL staff strive to meet the user’s deadline, but delivery by a certain time cannot be guaranteed. The lending libraries ultimately decide how quickly they process a request.

The user is responsible for all charges above those of a standard ILL request. The ILL staff will review all charges with the user prior to processing rush requests.

Receiving Items

The ILL staff notifies users by email when requested items arrive. Users may request an alternative means of notification. If possible, materials are provided to users via email. Physical items such as books or articles not in electronic format will be held at the library service desk for users to pick up. In some cases, such as with online students who cannot come to the library, the ILL staff will mail physical items to the user’s home address.

Returning Items

Photocopies acquired by ILL become the property of the user and are not returned to the lending library. All other materials must be returned to the lending library. The loan period is set by the lending library, and is usually one month or less. Users are expected to know the due date of ILL materials. The library does not send its own overdue notices for ILL materials; however, ILL staff will forward users any overdue notices sent by a lending library.

Users should request a renewal before the due date. Materials will not be renewed past their due date. The ILL staff cannot guarantee that a renewal request will be granted. The lending library makes the final decision on whether to renew materials.

ILL materials must be returned directly to the library circulation staff. Users are responsible for the materials until they have been given to a library staff member. If an ILL item is lost or damaged while in a user’s possession, that user must pay the replacement cost mandated by the lending library. Users are not responsible for any materials lost or damaged while in the possession of library staff.

If a user does not return ILL materials within one week of the overdue notices, the user’s library privileges will be suspended. The user will also be charged the replacement cost of the materials. To reinstate library privilege, the user must return all overdue items and speak to the ILL staff. If the materials are not returned, privilege will be reinstated once the replacement cost has been paid.

Copyright and Photocopying

The library follows the current CONTU Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Photocopying when requesting reproduction of materials. Not more than five articles may be requested in a calendar year from the same journal title from volumes published in the last five years. For requests that exceed this limit, users must pay royalties to the publisher.