This page contains the policies, rules, and procedures for Borrow Direct.

Contact information for staff or patron inquiries about Borrow Direct

Please direct all patron inquiries regarding Borrow Direct to borrowdirect@harvard.edu.

Staff can also send questions to that email address or call Jason Clarke at 617-495-2972. If Jason is not available, please contact Ken Peterson at 617-496-9563. 

When a Borrow Direct book arrives at your library

Always remember to activate the hold by discharging each item as it arrives. For most items, you simply scan the request number on the paper book band (it will look like HVD-XXXXXXXX). 

*Multi-Volume Items - Please remember, when charging and discharging multi-volume Borrow Direct items, only the *first* volume uses the request number (HVD-XXXXXXXX) as the barcode. The rest of the volumes will have white labels with a temporary barcode (HVD-MV-XXXXX) on each. You must scan those temporary barcodes in order to put the items on hold, charge them, and discharge them. 

Loan rules

Borrow Direct items can be checked out for six weeks, then renewed once for another six weeks. At the end of those twelve weeks, the item must be returned. Extensions are not allowed, per our agreement with the partner libraries. However, feel free to recommend to patrons that if there are other copies of the same item(s) available at other partner libraries, they can request another copy before they return the one they have out. (Patrons are allowed to request and hold more than one copy of the same item via Borrow Direct.)

Renewals

Borrow Direct items can be renewed online via a patron's HOLLIS account, just like any other Harvard library book.

However, as soon as that renewal is done, the due date is set to six weeks. So if a patron checks out a Borrow Direct book, and the one week later she does a “Renew All” on her HOLLIS account, she will only have that book for seven weeks instead of twelve.

Recalls

Borrow Direct items can be recalled by their lending institutions, often before they are checked out to a patron. Many Harvard libraries have differing policies regarding what to do when recalled items are checked out; for example, some have ALEPH pop-ups informing the Circulation staff that an item has been recalled, while others don’t. The key thing to keep in mind is that if you don’t stamp the item with the recall due date (and ideally, inform the patron verbally as well), then the first the patron will hear of the early due date is the courtesy notice a few days later. Please be sure to stamp all BD items, including recalled ones, with the due date that appears in ALEPH.

Pickup library selection, Widener Library, & the courier service

It may be helpful for some patrons to know that Borrow Direct items are processed at Widener Library and then, if the item has been requested for pickup at another library, the item is shipped to that library via the Harvard courier service. This usually adds an extra day to the transit time. If a patron wishes to get the book as soon as possible, they should select Widener as the pickup library.

Using Borrow Direct to request items that are missing from Harvard's collection

If a patron comes in to your library looking for an item in the collection and it becomes evident that item is missing, and there are no other available copies of the item in the Harvard system, one option is to request the item via Borrow Direct. However, this request cannot be made until the Item Status of the item is changed to MI (Missing) in the ALEPH cataloging module. Otherwise the BD catalog will read Harvard’s copy as “available” and it cannot be requested.

Known issues: Items that are On Hold and On Reserve

Due to a known issue with the Borrow Direct software, items that are On Hold or On Reserve cannot be requested via Borrow Direct.

Essentially, the glitch causes the software to see any given item as being "here" (on the shelves, on hold, or on reserve) or "not here" (charged out), rather than being "available" or "not available." So when a patron tries to request a Borrow Direct item that is on hold or on reserve, the system will tell them to go get the on hold or on reserve copy. For these situations, please inform the patron they can make an Interlibrary Loan request.

For libraries that loan items out through Borrow Direct, this glitch also explains why you may sometimes receive requests for items that are on hold or on reserve.

Also note, items that are available to Harvard patrons via Internet link are also blocked from being requested via Borrow Direct.

Known issues: Checking out Borrow Direct books to Proxy/Research Assistant ID cards

There is a glitch in Borrow Direct involving requests made by proxy patrons (such as research assistants): you will be unable to charge the item to either the research assistant or the faculty member’s account. When this happens, please do the following: delete the hold in ALEPH, and then check the item out to either account (RA or faculty member).

NOTE: In the rare situation where a proxy patron's item has been recalled, deleting the proxy patron hold will result in the recall preventing you from being able to check book out to the patron for their allotted shortened loan.

If you find yourself in this situation, please follow the following procedure:

1.) Delete both holds

2.) Put a new hold on for the patron’s ID (proxy ID or faculty ID, whichever one the patron has on them)

3.) Put a second new hold on for ID number “BDHARVARD1” with a pickup location of Widener (this is important!)

4.) Check the book out to the patron. The due date should be shortened due to the recall.

If a Borrow Direct hold slip will not print upon discharge

Sometimes when attempting to discharge some Borrow Direct books (often the latter volumes of a multi-volume item, but sometimes other items), you will receive a pop-up error (the text can vary) that prevents you from printing the hold slips.

To print the hold slips, go to the ALEPH file menu, select Requests, then Hold Requests, then Print Letter – Hold Request Filled, and then scan the barcode(s).

Microfilm, visual media, & fragile items from other Borrow Direct universities

Most Borrow-Direct-participating universities only lend books, but a few lend microfilm and visual media such as DVDs and Blu-Rays. Please circulate these to patrons as you would any other Borrow Direct item, including letting them take them out of the library. The consortium agreement makes it clear that the decision is in the hands of the lending library to loan such items. This may mean that, for example, you must allow a patron to leave the library with a box of microfilm. Again, this is already agreed-upon by the lending library and we have no reason to deny the check-out to the patron.

Sometimes fragile books, and books in boxes, are sent to Harvard from other Borrow Direct libraries. Again, it is not our job to second-guess those libraries except in extreme cases where it is extremely obvious the item should not have been sent out and is liable to fall apart at any moment. In that event, please contact borrowdirect@harvard.edu and inform them of the situation.