Books and Borrowing
Where Are the Books?
by Itel Rivas (2025)
Due to ongoing renovations at the MSE Library, a vast majority of our collection has been moved to off-site storage. Patrons can request books via the main library website—library.jhu.edu—as well as other avenues (detailed below). While library staff CAN make requests for patrons, this is mostly done as a corrective measure—e.g., if a book is sent back to off-site storage by mistake or if the wrong book was sent; or something like that. If a patron asks if you can request a book for them, go for it, but try not to offer it as a service.
Note: if a patron asks how long it usually takes for a book to arrive at the Annex, tell them 24-48 hours.
Reserve Materials
Look behind you. Reserve Materials are readily available items selected by faculty for their courses. They can be checked out to patrons for a very limited time—usually 24-hours. Check elsewhere on the Guide for more details.
Alternate Book Locations
If a patron is looking for a book that we do not have (or is not available), you can point them to our Resource Sharing services. Alternatively, you can point them to other available resources.
Check elsewhere on the Guide for more details on Resource Sharing and alternate book sources.
Resource Sharing
Through our Resource Sharing services, patrons can request books from our partner institutions, as well as the wider Interlibrary Loan (ILL) network. Review more official wording HERE.
Or, check it out yourself and request a book!
Note that our Resource Sharing services is only available for JHED patrons—active Hopkins students, faculty, and staff; but note that most library institutions provide ILL services as well.
A BorrowDirect request can take 3 to 7 days to arrive, and can be loaned out to patrons for a total of 16 weeks with NO RENEWALS. Interlibrary Loan requests can vary in terms of arrival time and loan period—this is because it borrows from a much wider net of libraries with their own rules and quirks.
If a patron wants to renew their ILL, please get their name and the TN (Transaction Number) of their item. This is found in both their ILL emails and on the ILL book band. Present it to ILL staff.
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Borrow Direct Member Schools |
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Brown University |
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Columbia University |
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Cornell University |
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Dartmouth College |
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Duke University |
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Harvard University |
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Johns Hopkins University |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
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Princeton University |
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Stanford University |
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University of Chicago |
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University of Pennsylvania |
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Yale University |
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MICUA Schools |
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Capitol Technology University |
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Goucher College |
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Hood College |
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Johns Hopkins University |
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Loyola University Maryland |
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Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) |
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McDaniel College |
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Mount St. Mary’s University |
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Notre Dame of Maryland University |
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St. John’s College |
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Stevenson University |
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Washington Adventist University |
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Washington College |
Alternate Book Sources
Local Libraries
The Enoch Pratt Free Library is Baltimore City's public library system and Maryland's State Library Resource Center. The library system has a Central Library in downtown Baltimore and 21 branches throughout the city, including the Waverly branch conveniently located 10 minutes walking from the Homewood Campus.
The Book Thing
The Book Thing of Baltimore is a charity that hopes to give unwanted books a new home and match books with interested readers. Once a month, they host their monthly book giveaway event typically falls on the second full weekend of the month, and it alternates between Saturday and Sunday.
Staff Picks
Every month our staff selects a number of books to keep at the Annex ready for immediate checkout. The books selected typically are on theme with the current heritage or identity recognition month such as Pride for June or Black History Month for February.
Bluejay Book Cart
Located near the bottom of the stairs inside the annex, the Blue Jay Book Cart is a program where patrons are free to “take a book, leave a book”. Blue Jay Book Cart is always looking for donations.
Reserves
Reserve materials are specific items selected by faculty to be held behind the Service Desk. Loan periods for these items range from 4-hours at the shortest, 1-day on average, and 3-days at most. They are organized by Library of Congress Call No. order.
When checking out a Reserve item to a patron, you MUST always inform them of the item's due date.
If a patron does not know the Call No. for the item they're looking for, look up the title on Catalyst.
If a patron does not know what the title of a Reserve item is, you can still look Reserve items up on Catalyst by the professor's name.
If faculty wants to add items to their Reserves list, physically or digitally, they must email reserves@jh.edu. But let your supervisor know so that they could ping Res staff, especially if faculty is insisting that their request be expedited.
If there is a dead link on ARES or Canvas or ProQuest, instruct the patron to email reserves@jh.edu with their course information and issue; if its a student reporting the issue suggest that they CC their professor on the email. Again let your supervisor know so that they could ping Res staff, especially if the patron is insisting that their request be expedited.
Note from Steven:
Patrons might demand a non-service account to contact when you give them the reserves@jh.edu email. They might even demand a phone number. You can give them Abby Collier's contact information, but never offer it.
Here's what you can tell patrons:
Reserves workflow operates best when they are given a paper trail on their departmental account.
Attached is a PDF containing instructions on how to request library items from OUR collections for patrons. It's simple and all Library Assistants should be able to do it. But here's a personal note from Steven:
Encourage patrons to make the request themselves, but be willing to help. It's actually more convenient for patrons to make the request themselves, but helping people is what we do here so we'll help when and where we can. ... unless they're asking you to request several items for them.