Your Library Card and Privileges

Your Hiram College ID card with a barcode on the back is your library card. Once you have your ID in hand, please come to the Circulation Desk (the desk on the left as you enter the Library) and have your barcode number entered into your record in the Library's automated system. Until you take that final step, your library card is not activated.

An activated library card gives you additional user privileges. Anyone, of course, can come into the Library and use items within the building. An active card, however, allows you to check out books, check out reserve items, and borrow items through OhioLINK. Without these options you cannot take full advantage of the Library's resources.

Computers in the Library and a Hiram College Computer Account

To use an up-to-date academic library like the Hiram College Library, you will need to use computers. The Library's catalog is available only by computer. Many of the periodical indexes and other reference materials you will need to use are also available online. Additionally, the Library provides access to an increasing number of journals and other full-text resources online. To support this increasing emphasis on electronic information, the Library has four computers (with Internet access to our online resources) that are available to anyone.

If, however, you have a Hiram College computer account, you have access to an additional fourteen computers in the Library that require a Hiram College computer account to log-on. These computers tend to be newer, faster machines and eight of them allow word processing. Given these advantages, obtaining a Hiram College computer account from the Computer Center is highly recommended.

 

Hours

Generally, the Library is open Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. On weekends when WEC classes are meeting, the Library is open on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. When WEC classes are not in session, the Library closes at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. The Library's regular hours, summer hours, and special hours for holidays and interim periods are posted on the Library's Hours web page (http://library.hiram.edu/hours.htm).

A professional librarian is available to provide assistance in using the Library and its resources every Monday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., on Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and on WEC Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. At other hours, a library staff member or a student staff member is available to provide basic assistance.

 

Reserves

Often faculty will place books or articles on reserve in the Library. This allows everyone in the class to have equal access to a limited number of copies. Reserves may be checked out (you'll need that activated library card) at the Circulation Desk. Items on reserve can be identified through the Library's online catalog. Most, but not all, items on reserve may be checked out for two hours and must be used in the building. The length of time and other conditions of a reserve checkout are set by the professor and cannot be changed by library staff.

In Fall 2001, the library began testing an online reserve system with several classes using it.  If your class is one of these you will be given a password to allow you access to the online documents.  To facilitate access to reserves, there are links on the library's home page to both traditional and online reserves.

 

Photocopiers and Change

The Library has two public photocopiers. On the main floor, the copier is in an alcove at the West End of the building. On the lower level the copier is to the right of the elevator as you exit the elevator. Both copiers charge 10 cents per copy and will take nickels, dimes, and quarters and will give change.

A dollar bill changer ($1 bills only) is located next to the copier on the main floor and will give four quarters in exchange for a dollar bill. A limited amount of change is available at the Circulation Desk. If you plan to make lots of copies, plan on bringing lots of change or $1 bills.

 

OhioLINK and Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

On occasion you will discover you need books that are not in our library. At that point, you should search the OhioLINK catalog (http://olc1.ohiolink.edu/search/). You may request the books found in OhioLINK be shipped to Hiram College for your use (you will need that library card activated to use this service). Another library will send the book and it should arrive in a couple of days. You may use the book for three weeks with one renewal for an additional three weeks.

Since most WEC students are only on campus every other weekend, OhioLINK may not be nearly as convenient or helpful as it is for residential students. Fortunately, if you live near another Ohio academic institution (CSU, YSU, KSU, Akron, CCC, etc.) your Hiram College library card (activated, of course!) can be used to check out books at that other library. The books will show up on your Hiram Library account and you may use the books for three weeks with one renewal for an additional three weeks.

Overdue fines for OhioLINK materials are $0.50 per day per item, with a maximum fine of $15.00 per item. Lost materials (defined as any item 30 days or more overdue) will be billed at a straight $75.00 plus a $25.00 processing fee.  Please note that OhioLINK fines and fees are set by the consortium and cannot be waived or adjusted.

If you need a journal article the Library does not own, you will need to use traditional interlibrary loan to obtain a photocopy. Just fill out the appropriate Interlibrary Loan Photocopy Request form (on the computer counter to the right as you enter the Library) and return it to the Circulation Desk. We'll do the rest. Just stop by the Circulation Desk on your next time you are on campus. Since it will take about two weeks (and there may be a small charge), this can be a useful service.
 
 

Online Resources

The Hiram College Library makes a large amount of information available online. Among the key online resources and their Internet addresses are:

The Library's Web Page http://library.hiram.edu

The Library's Catalog http://hiraml.hiram.edu

Both of the above pages are available to everyone.

 

In addition, the Library subscribes to more than 100 online databases. Many of these are online versions of familiar periodical indexes. More and more, however, these databases contain the full-text of periodical articles, along with the usual indexing. A number of these databases are now available for off-campus access, provided, of course, you have an activated library card. For more information on this relatively new service, see our "Off-Campus Database Access User Guide" at http://library.hiram.edu/remote_gde.htm.
 
 

Monitoring Your Library Account

You can use the online catalog to monitor your library "account." This lets you check on what books you have checked out, when they are due, what books you have placed a hold upon (this includes your OhioLINK requests), and how much you owe in fines. Just go to the online catalog at http://hiraml.hiram.edu and click on View Your Patron Record. You will need to enter your name (first name first) and your barcode (NO spaces between the numbers). For more information, see "Using the Online Catalog to Monitor Your Library Account" at http://library.hiram.edu/account.htm. 

 

 

Starting Your Research

Getting started on your research can often be confusing. The librarians at the Hiram College Library have designed a number of web pages to help you get started using online resources. Just remember that not everything you will need is available online and that not everything online, especially free Internet sites, are worth using.

To get started, just go to the Library’s Home Page ( http://library.hiram.edu ). Click on the big button on the upper left that reads Begin Your Research by Subject Area Here. This will lead you to a page of broad subject areas, areas that usually correspond to an academic department at Hiram College. So, if you are doing research for a Communications class, just click on the Communications link on the subject area page. This will take you to a page designed to give you a quick outline of doing research in the field of communications.

The Library has also created two pages to help you negotiate the Internet. One page, Evaluating Web Sites ( http://library.hiram.edu/evaluating.htm ), will give you some guidelines and ideas for evaluating the worthiness of the many sites you are likely to find. The second page, Searching the Web 

( http://library.hiram.edu/searching.htm ), is designed to help you locate relevant sites on the Internet, as well as how to cite them in your footnotes and bibliographies.

 

 

Getting More Help

Obviously, the web pages we’ve designed will not always be enough help. As noted above, a professional librarian is available to provide assistance in using the Library and its resources every Monday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., on Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and on WEC Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. At other hours, a library staff member or a student staff member is available to provide basic assistance.

During normal office hours (8:30 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.), you may also call one of the reference librarians listed below. At other hours the library is open, please call the main desk at (330) 569-5489.

David Everett (330) 569-5353 email: everettdd@hiram.edu

Lisa Johnson (330) 569-5363 email: johnsonlh@hiram.edu

Jeff Wanser (330) 569-5358 email: wanserjc@hiram.edu

When the library is closed, you may still call and leave a voice message (be sure to leave your name and both a day and evening number where you may be reached) or send an email to one of the reference librarians at the above email addresses.