About: Policies

Building Access

The library building is open to:

• Current Manhattan College students, faculty, staff, and administrators
• Manhattan College alumni
• Off-duty NYPD personnel
• Faculty of any college or university
• Students, staff, and administrators from the charter members of the WALDO library consortium
• Guests of current Manhattan College students, faculty, staff, and administrators
• Manhattan College tour groups
• Participants in events (e.g., conferences) that are open to specific groups.

Individuals in some of these groups must register and receive advance permission to visit the Library.  Please click on the appropriate category for further information. 

If you would like Library visitor access but are not in any of the eight categories shown here, please fill out this form.

During the last week of classes and the week of final exams, the library building is open only to current Manhattan College students, faculty, staff, and administrators.

Unaccompanied minors are not allowed in the Library.

Individuals may be required to leave the building if their presence is considered detrimental to the operation of the Library.

Access to Online Resources, Computers, and Printers

Off-campus access to the Library’s online resources is available only to current Manhattan College students, faculty, staff and administrators.

On-site visitors who would like to use online resources, computers, or printers may request a guest login at the Circulation Desk.

Borrowing 

A valid ID card from Manhattan College or MC Glance App is required to borrow materials from the Manhattan College Library.

Filming in the Library

• Requests to film in the library from commercial groups outside of Manhattan College require approval from the Marketing and Communications Office.

• Requests from students to film in the library for personal or academic projects must ask permission at the Circulation Desk on the 5th floor.

Gifts (Donations) 

The Library will be glad to accept donations (gifts) of 30 or fewer books and/or DVDs.  We are not accepting donations of journal/magazine issues or other media such as videocassettes or CDs.  Gifts are accepted with the understanding that all ownership rights held by the donor are transferred to the Library, and that the Library may dispose of gift items in any way -- by adding them to the library collection, giving them to other libraries, selling them, or discarding them, among other things.

The Library does not accept large donations -- more than 30 items -- due to the high cost of processing and evaluating them. For donations of 30 or fewer books and/or DVDs, please contact Susanne Markgren, Assistant Director of the Library for Technical Services at susanne.markgren@manhattan.edu, or 718-862-7997.

Online Textbooks in the Library Collection

Faculty often request that the Library acquire electronic versions of the textbooks used in their courses. Unfortunately, that option is not available for many of the more prominent textbook publishers. Specifically, publishers such as Cengage, McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, and Pearson will not allow libraries to acquire e-book versions of their textbooks.

Unlike print books, e-books are invariably licensed rather than sold. That allows publishers to restrict

• who can license the content
• who can access the content, and for how long
• the extent to which users can read, download, copy, and print chapters, pages, or excerpts of the text.

Many publishers have found that they can maximize revenue by marketing their products solely to individual users.

Students in courses that use these textbooks must purchase print copies, if they’re available, or acquire the e-books directly from the publishers or their agents. In some cases, the Library can acquire print copies for Course Reserve, but we cannot normally afford more than one copy of each text.

We encourage faculty to investigate alternatives such as

• using textbooks from publishers that allow libraries to license their products
• using books that are suitable for course instruction but marketed and sold as conventional books rather than textbooks
• using open educational resources (OERs)--online textbooks and instructional materials that are freely available online
• within Moodle, posting or linking to individual chapters and articles to the extent allowed by the Fair Use and Educational Use provisions of copyright law.
• working with the subject librarians to identify alternatives to the textbooks available from publishers such as Cengage, McGraw-Hill, and Pearson.

Open Educational Resources are especially attractive to many faculty, since they are freely available online without restrictions on access, use, downloading, or printing.

The Mason OER Metafinder of George Mason University can be used to identify OER textbooks and other instructional materials in a wide range of subject areas.

SUNY OER Services also provides a rapidly growing set of OER texts, videos, interactive exercises, problem sets, and assignments.

Reserve

Fall 2022/Spring 2023 Course Reserve Updates:

• For the best student experience, please use hard copy reserves only when necessary.  Please consider making all required course materials available online.
• If you need assistance acquiring excerpts from books for your Moodle site, please contact circulation@manhattan.edu
• DVD’s that are on reserve still circulate. Their loan period is now 24 hours.

   
Placing Materials on Reserve: 

• A Reserve Request Form is needed for each item.
• Reserve requests for items in the library's collection should be submitted one week before they are needed. Reserve items are processed in the order in which they are received.
• Reserve requests need to be submitted and updated each semester.
• For information on adding, or linking, material to your Moodle Course click here.
• Personal copies are no longer being accepted. If you wish to place a book or DVD on course reserve that the library does not own, you can either 1) request that we purchase a copy using the purchase request form, or 2) donate your personal copy to the library.

Copyright Guidelines for Reserve Material:

• U.S. copyright law governs the reproduction of copyrighted materials. 
• The Fair Use and Educational Use provisions of copyright law allow materials to be reproduced in many cases. There are cases in which the copyright holder’s permission is required.
• Reproducing electronic material may be limited by copyright law and/or license agreements. 

If you have any questions, please contact the Access Services Librarian.

Library Fire Evacuation Policies:  2021 

• When a fire alarm is sounded, library employees should notify patrons and other staff that all occupants must evacuate the building.  Staff are not expected to notify patrons on other floors of the building or to enter the Hayes stacks*

• Library employees will direct patrons to use the exit on the floor they are currently on.  No one should use the stairs or the elevator.

• Study Rooms and bathrooms should be checked for occupants on the floor where you are working.  Occupants should be instructed to evacuate the building.

• Patrons should take their personal belongings when exiting the building.

• Library employees should take their personal belongings when exiting the building, if feasible.

• All lights must be left on when leaving the building.

• Upon leaving the building, library employees will direct patrons to waiting areas that are at a safe distance from the building.

• The building assembly areas listed in the Emergency Response Guide are :

  • The Quad

  • Horan Hall Service Road on the sidewalk

  • MCP at W242 St.

Building Assembly Areas (from the ERG regarding assembly areas):

“Be familiar with campus assembly areas and know where to go when evacuating. In the event of a building evacuation report to an assembly area and be alert to information from Public Safety, college personnel or emergency responders. These locations are provided as a guide and are subject to change dependent on incident conditions. If you cannot easily get to an identified area, use your best judgment to get to a safe location away from the building. When evacuating, keep away from the building and stay out of the street.”

• Library employees, along with Public Safety personnel, outside the building will inform approaching people not to enter the building and to maintain a safe distance.

• Once Public Safety has given an all clear to re-enter the building, library employees will direct patrons to enter through the main entrance of the library.

Staff are not required to stay in the building until all patrons have been evacuated.  Library personnel should not compromise their personal safety.

*Examples:

• Library personnel should not enter the Hayes Stacks.  There are emergency exits in Hayes; patrons/firefighters will be able to find them. 

• Library personnel should not go to the first floor just to help evacuate people.  Faculty and staff who use the first floor (IELP and VERT Lab) will be informed about the procedures.

Study Room Reservation Policy for Student Interviews

Students can reserve study rooms only for virtual interviews(e.g., for jobs, internships, graduate school admission, etc.) - not for other purposes.

Reservations must be made at least 24 hours before the virtual interview, and reservations for a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday must be made the previous Friday.

To reserve a room, contact the Library Operations Coordinator (libraryadmin@manhattan.edu). 

Study Room reservations cannot exceed three hours in duration

Students cannot request a particular study room; the room will be assigned by the Library

***Due to high demand, Study Rooms cannot be reserved during the last week of classes and Final Exams.***

Hours