Library Guides: Introduction to the QCC Library: Books and Textbooks

Borrowing Books from QCC LIbrary

Book Lending Rules

The libraries of the City University of New York participate in a universal CUNY Libraries Access lending agreement. This means CUNY libraries lend books to students at any CUNY campus through CUNY Libraries Inter-Campus Services (CLICS)
A currently validated I.D. card must be presented to enter or borrow library materials from any CUNY school.

Loan and Renewal

CUNY Undergraduate students: 4 weeks (28 days)
Items may be renewed a limited number of times if there are no hold requests on the item. Renewals must be done:
Renew in person at the lending library only, or
Electronically through the “My Account” link in CUNY OneSearch or the CUNY Catalog
As of March 10, 2020, CUNY libraries will offer at least 9 renewals for regularly loaned items. Renewals may be accomplished with the “My Account” link in CUNY OneSearch.

Returns

Books may be returned to any CUNY library.

Textbooks and Reserve

Some of your textbooks may be borrowed hourly in the library from the reserve desk.

Before you go to the reserve desk to borrow your book, to be used in the library, you will need:

a call number The call number represents what the book, is about and acts like the book's address on the library's shelves or stacks. Because books on the shelves are arranged in call number order, you will find books on similar subjects shelved near each other

Use OneSearch to find the call number

type the title followed by the author of the book as you did when finding for a book on the shelf
Write down the call number of the most recent edition of the book and use this number at the reserve desk when requesting your textbook

Finding Books on the Shelf

When searching for a book to borrow:

Type the title followed by the author in OneSearch (the library catalog) on the library's homepage
Let's find the book The Art of Public Speaking by Lucas

At the QCC Library, we use the Library of Congress (LC) classification system. LC call numbers are made up of letters and numbers and look something like this:

PR 8923 W6 L36 1990 c.3

Read the call number from left to right. The first part of a call number, PR 8923, consists of a combination of one or two letters and a number that indicates a specific subject area.

Call numbers beginning with a single letter come before call numbers with a second letter, e.g.: P before PA, then PB, PC, and so on until PR.
Once you are in the correct letter area (in this example, PR), the books are in number order, e.g.: PR 8923 comes after PR 90 and before PR 9000.
The next part of the call number is read like decimals, e.g.: PR 8914 J46 1992 comes before PR 8914 J6
Many books also include the year of publication. In this example it is 1990. This will help you find the right edition, if there is more than one.