Circulation Services
Phone: (617) 638-4244
Email: medcirc@bu.edu
If you need additional information about Circulation Services, contact Konstantin Starikov, Head of Circulation & Interlibrary Loan Services, at (617) 638-4224 or kstar@bu.edu.
Click to jump to a specific topic:
- Departmental Overview
- Library Use by BMC Faculty and Staff
- Fines and Billing Information
- Course Materials on Reserve
- BU WorldCat Local
- Charles River Campus Intra-Library Book Request
- Accessing Library Holdings
- Public Safety Services
- Medical Library Storage
- Missing Item Search
The Alumni Medical Library provides library and information services to the faculty, staff and students of the Boston University schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Public Health, and the Boston Medical Center. The Library is open to Boston University students, faculty, staff and alumni as well as members of the Boston Library Consortium and the Massachusetts Medical Society. Click here to access the BU Libraries Search interface. A description of Medical Library Collections is available here. Use this form to recommend that the Library purchase a book or journal title.
- All faculty, staff and students of Boston University can use their identification cards to check-out materials from the Alumni Medical Library.
- All faculty, staff and students who are affiliated with universities & libraries holding membership in the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) are also eligible to check-out materials. A valid BLC card must be presented at time of check-out.
- Journals, reference books, reserve books and audiovisual materials do not circulate outside the Library.
- Books in the regular circulating collection are circulated for 28 days. Renew with the Book Renewal Form.
- Each book may be renewed up to two times unless another patron has placed a "hold" on the item. When a book is renewed, its due date is 28 days from the day of the renewal. Book renewals must be requested within one week of the book's due date -- Boston University's online library catalog system does not allow for a book to be renewed prior to one week before its due date.
- Checked-out materials can be returned to any of the Boston University libraries. The Interlibrary Loan Service materials must be returned to the BU library from which they were requested.
- Patrons are responsible for theft, loss, or damage to items checked-out to them.
BMC clincal employees, including residents, can use their BMC identification cards to check out materials at the Alumni Medical Library. BMC ID cards can also be used to check out items at the Charles River campus libraries, but only after an initial visit to the Medical Library. If you have already checked out a book at the Medical Library, you will not need to do any further. If you have not checked out an item and wish to use your ID card at the Charles River campus libraries, please present your card to the staff member at the Alumni Medical Library desk and ask to be added to the system that tracks library usage.
Information on setting up access to electronic resources.
- If a patron fails to return a checked-out item 7 days past its due date, he or she will receive a late notice requesting that the item be returned immediately.
- If the book is not returned 14 days after the first notice is sent, a second late notice is mailed.
- If the item is still not returned within an additional 20 days, a final late notice is sent.
- If a patron does not return the item 10 days after the final notice has been sent, he or she will be billed an $80 replacement charge per item (or cost of the item -- whichever is greater) along with a $20 non-refundable billing fee. (Students' university accounts are automatically billed for unreturned items. Faculty and staff must pay replacement charges of fines directly to the Library). BUMC and BMC faculty and staff will be blocked from checking-out materials from all Boston University libraries. Blocked records cannot be re-instated until the overdue item is returned or the payment is received.
- Patrons who return items after receiving a billing notice are not required to pay the full $100 or replacement value of the item. As long as the item is returned in good condition and within a reasonable time, the patron is required to pay only a $20 non-refundable billing fee.
- When a patron returns the item, his or her library records are immediately unblocked as long as all fines have been paid in full.
The Print Reserves Collection is located on the 12th floor of the Library behind the Circulation Desk. Reserve materials are loaned for a period of two hours and are for library use only.
The purpose of the Print Reserve Collection is to make required course readings easily accessible to Boston University students. By limiting the amount of time such material may be charged out and/or requiring that the material remain in the library during use, all students in a class have the opportunity to make use of it. Additionally, the Reserve service provides a secure location for heavily-used items.
If you are a course instructor at the Boston University Medical Center (Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine or Public Health), please view the following page for instructions on how to place materials on reserve: http://medlib.bu.edu/reserves/facultyreserve.cfm
The Circulation Services staff will relocate reserve materials that are no longer being used by a course instructor to the general collection. The course instructor must fill out or update a Reserve Request Form at least 14 days before these materials are needed on Reserve.
[Tutorial]
BU WorldCat Local allows current BU students, faculty,
and staff to borrow books directly from libraries in the
Boston Library Consortium free of charge. (Please note: Interlibrary Loan is
still required for
requesting copies of journal articles.) Turnaround time is
approximately three to five working days.
If you need help placing a request, please call the Circulation Desk: (617) 638-4244.
If you need additional information about BU WorldCat Local, contact Konstantin Starikov, Head of Circulation & Interlibrary Loan Services, at
kstar@bu.edu or (617) 638-4224.
Students, faculty and staff of the Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine,
Public Health and the Boston Medical Center may use the Charles River Campus Intra-Library Book Request Form to
request loanable materials available within the BU Library
System, but not owned by the Alumni Medical Library. Requests normally take 7-14 business days to fill (Monday-Friday). No rush requests are available.
There is no charge for this service.
If you need an item that is not owned by any
Boston University library, please use BU WorldCat Local or the
Interlibrary Loan Request Form instead.
- BU Libraries Search and information about searching Library resources.
- Boston Library Consortium:
- WorldCat Book and Journal Holdings
- Click here to renew a book that you have checked out.
- Click here to make a purchase request for a book or journal.
For items lost at the Alumni Medical Library call the Circulation Desk at (617) 638-4244. Lost and found items will be returned to the Public Safety Department on the same day that the items have been found. The Public Safety Department will provide vehicular or pedestrian escorts to the garages, lots and surrounding medical center buildings during night and weekend hours upon request. For more information about services provided by the BUMC Public Safety Department click on the link below.
The Alumni Medical Library will provide copies of pages from pre-1966 journal articles that are kept at Medical Library Storage. Please fill out the Medical Storage request form for each photocopy request. Requests usually take 1-2 work days to fill (Monday-Friday). There is no charge for this service, which is available to current students, faculty and staff from the BU/BMC Community.
If you are unable to locate an item on the shelves, you should first ask at the Circulation Desk so that staff can check to see if it is on a cart waiting to be re-shelved. If Library staff are also unable to find the item, please fill out the Missing Item form. Library staff will conduct multiple searches, over a period of several weeks, for each item reported missing. If an item is found, you will be contacted by email.
