Services and hours

• Who can request: Current Mount Holyoke faculty, students, staff and emeriti may request available items via the library catalog. We are unable to offer request service to local borrowers, affiliates and MHC alums at this time. Please contact libcirc@mtholyoke.edu with questions about specific items.
• How to request: Submit books requests through the library catalog. Thank you in advance for your patience, as it may take a number of days for us to safely process your hold request.
• Hold limits: You may have up to 20 active hold requests pending. Once requested items are picked up, you may place more holds.
• Recalls: At this time, we are not able to recall books. If you need a book that is currently checked out, please submit an interlibrary loan request and we will try to obtain a copy for you. 
• Five College Library Materials: Borrowing and lending between the Five College libraries has resumed.  Please note that the Smith College Libraries will be moving into their new building in the new year, and some Smith collections will be unavailable from December 18, 2020 through January 22, 2021.

• Notification: You will receive a notification email from LITS letting you know when your items will be available for pickup. The pickup period will begin on the business day following your email notification. Current faculty, staff and resident students will have card swipe access to the library vestibule. Be sure to bring your OneCard so that you can access the building, and please utilize a face covering while inside the vestibule. Non-resident students and emeriti may schedule a curbside pickup appointment by contacting libcirc@mtholyoke.edu.
• Hours: Pickup hours are Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 11:00 pm, Saturday 9:00 am - 8:00 pm and Sunday 9:00 am - 11:00 pm. You will have 7 business days to pick up your material. Please note: In the event of campus closures for inclement weather, etc., LITS will be closed and pickup will be unavailable.
• Where to pickup: Enter Williston Library through the main entrance facing Clapp Hall, and proceed to the self-service area in the vestibule. You will find your items in a paper bag labeled with your name and the date of your notification email. Take your items; they will be checked out to you prior to your arrival. Please remember that entry into the LITS complex is limited to the library vestibule. Exit via the main entrance once you have retrieved your items.
• Loan periods and due dates:  Normal loan periods will apply. You may verify your due dates and manage renewals via your library account.

• Exterior book return: LITS will be accepting returns of books, CDs, and DVDs via the exterior book return at the entrance to Williston Library. Please do not return equipment (laptops, cameras, headphones, etc.) via the book return. If you need to return equipment, contact libcirc@mtholyoke.edu and we will help you schedule a drop-off appointment.
• Returns via mail: If you need to return items from off campus, mail them to the following address using book rate shipping: Mount Holyoke College LITS; Attn: Library Circulation Rm. 228; 50 College Street; South Hadley, MA 01075
• Spring 2020 loans: The libraries at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and UMass have extended due dates through March 1, 2021 for faculty, staff and students who took library materials home in spring of 2020.  Spring loans from Smith College are due September 30, 2020.
• Fines & Fees: Mount Holyoke community members will not be charged any fees for late returns during our building closure.
• Books from the other four colleges and interlibrary loan: Please renew these online, return via mail, or deposit in the book return at Williston Library.

• Safety practices: The safety of library staff and users is our highest priority. Library staff will follow all state, College, and public health guidelines, including social distancing, wearing masks, frequent handwashing, sanitizing and disinfecting of workspaces and self-monitoring for symptoms.
• Quarantining library items: Laboratory testing at Battelle released this summer shows that there is no trace of COVID-19 on the cover or interior pages of books after 4 days. However, depending on environmental conditions, the virus can remain on some library material surfaces for longer periods. In light of these findings, all materials returned to the library will be quarantined for at least 7 days prior to being processed. This means that returned items will stay on your record for the period of this quarantine. Requested materials will be bagged and quarantined for 24 hours before they are available for you to pick up.  You can follow additional testing results at the Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) Information Hub.
• Contactless service: For health and safety reasons, materials can only be picked up through the processes outlined above. Library staff will not be present in the library vestibule during self-service hours.

• See the Library Materials section of the LITS Student Guide: 2020-2021 to find information on accessing online resources such as ebooks, articles, journals and more.  
• All library eresources are available from off-campus. If you need help accessing resources remotely, contact researchservices-g@mtholyoke.edu.

• HathiTrust: HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries that preserves over 17 million digitized items, including ebooks and scholarly research. Due to the pandemic, we have been granted temporary access to HathiTrust ebooks that are still under copyright, and which the Mount Holyoke library currently owns in print.
• Lending limits: Under our agreement with HathiTrust, we cannot lend physical copies of books owned by Mount Holyoke when a HathiTrust electronic copy is available. When this emergency online access ends, MHC users will regain access to print titles in our collection.
• Borrowing instructions:  Detailed, step-by-step instructions on accessing HathiTrust ebooks from within the Five College catalog can be found here.

• You may use our interlibrary loan service to request PDFs of book chapters and articles, including those that are in the physical collection at MHC.
• ILL services for request of physical materials from other libraries have been restored as of August 31st.
• We encourage you to submit ILL requests for the materials you are looking for regardless of format.  We will attempt to find them online for you, ask other libraries to scan requested materials, or suggest alternate sources.

Interlibrary loan books can be returned in the book return outside Williston Library.

In order to equitably meet the needs of students learning both remotely and on campus, library course reserves will be a digital only collection this year. The print course reserves collection has been suspended.

Ereserves are available via Moodle. LITS reviews all required texts listed in my.mtholyoke and provides an ebook version of these resources whenever possible.  PDFs of articles and streaming video for required course reading and viewing may also be added to your Moodle course. 

Faculty can find information on submitting new course reserve requests in our Faculty Guide: 2020-2021 FIT.  Library staff are working to purchase ebook versions of course materials, and will provide course reserve scanning services by request.         

• LITS has a limited number of student laptops available for semester loan. These laptops are reserved for students who do not have access to a personal computer, and who need a device to complete coursework. If you have questions about borrowing a laptop from LITS, please email libcirc@mtholyoke.edu.
• Selected small equipment items from Circulation Serivces (e.g. laptop chargers) are available by catalog request, and may be borrowed for the length of each mod. Available Circulation items are listed in Gadgets-to-Go.  Detailed, step-by-step instructions on requesting these equipment items can be found here.
• Selected Media Services equipment items are available to students and can be requested through the Media equipment reservation form.

Visit Equipping Faculty for FIT for up-to-date information about classroom video-conferencing capabilities, borrowing equipment to support teaching and more.