Ripping up the rule book – Automatic Renewals

From 25th September, the Healthcare Library of Northern Ireland will no longer be reminding you to renew your loans or asking you to return them because you have kept them too long. Instead we have listened to your comments and will automatically renew your books for you, if they have not been requested by another Library member or your library membership is due to end.

What will this mean for me?

• Less hassle – no more remembering to renew your loans.
• More time to use your books and less pressure to meet Library deadlines.
• No more fines for books just to be returned to the shelves – fines will just be added on to late books which are in demand (requested by another Library member).

How will this work for me?

• You take your books out as normal. They will be issued for your usual loan period.
• The day before your books are due back, we will send you a ‘Renewal Update’ email, which will tell you what books are being renewed for another loan period and what books have not been possible to renew.
• If a book that you have on loan is requested by another Library member, we will send you a ‘Book in Demand’ email asking you to return it. This means you will have up to one week to finish using it, but this may be less depending on when the item was due. Don’t worry, you can always request the book again if you haven’t quite finished with it.
• Sometimes it will not be possible to renew a book even though you haven’t received a ‘Book in Demand’ email. Please see our webpages about renewals and requested items to find out more.

How do I request a book which is on loan to someone else?

• Most library items that are on loan to other people may be requested which means that they should be returned within one week from when the request is made. This ensures that popular items are made available for as many people as possible.
• Standard books can be requested using the Library Catalogue.

We hope you find our new automatic renewals service useful but please contact us if you have any questions or concerns. We always welcome feedback about all of our services so please let us know what you think.