The Carleton College Library exists to support learning and teaching by providing information resources and services to the Carleton College community. Information specialists are available to help you pursue your interests on any topic.

The library is a central intellectual commons, and policies exist to ensure that library resources will be equitably available to all members of the community and to preserve them for future users. These policies are available on the library website and all users are responsible for following them. Students who violate these policies may be referred to the Academic Standing Committee (ASC) for abuse of library privileges.

If a student violates a library policy and the library staff reports the violation to the Academic Standing Committee, the committee ordinarily will handle the case through a hearing as outlined in the Student Handbook. In the following specific cases for a first offense, the ASC has adopted automatic penalties over and above fines or other costs imposed by the library staff:

1. failure to respond to recall notices–written warning.
2. returning closed reserve materials more than eight hours late–10 weeks of censure.

Other violations and second offenses will call for a hearing by the ASC. Library circulation records and other records identifying the names of library users are confidential in nature. Such records will not be made available except pursuant to legal process, order or subpoena.

Borrowers who neglect to return library materials (including items borrowed from St. Olaf College or Interlibrary Loan), or who return materials in unsatisfactory condition, will be billed for replacement of the material and a processing fee. Students will be prohibited from registering for the following term until the lost or damaged material is returned or paid for.