You are always welcome to browse our shelves for anything you find interesting, whether that’s for research or just for fun! We are continuously adding new books to our collection, especially in our Current Reading Collection on the first floor by the Technology Help Desk. You can also search our catalog to find the location of a specific book, or consult our floor guide to browse books in a specific subject.
If you found a book to read while in the library but don’t want to check it out, don’t worry about placing it back on the shelf! There are red book carts placed throughout every floor of the library that you can leave the book on and library staff will reshelve it.
We also have lots of board games, DVDs, and CDs you can browse and check out. The DVDs and CDs are located on the first floor near the main entrance, opposite the circulation desk. If you are coming in the front doors, they are just to your right, past the relaxation zone. The board game collection is also on the first floor, and is located across from the Tech Desk next to the Reference Collection.
You may notice that our DVD cases, CD cases, and board game boxes are empty when they’re on the shelves, but don’t worry! This is just to make sure no pieces go missing and discs don’t get damaged on the shelves. You’ll get the disks or pieces you need when you bring the box to the circulation desk for check out.
Once you have found the item you want, you can take it up to the circulation desk on the first floor of the library to check it out. You will need your BU ID for this. For information on how many items you are allowed to check out and how long you can keep them, please see our borrowing policies. The only items that can't be checked out are print journals and periodicals. You can see your checked out items and request a renewal to keep your item for longer in your online account.
We ask that you treat our library books with respect, as we would like to keep our books as long as possible so that everyone can use them. Please do not write or highlight in our books - if you want to take notes or annotate, we ask that you instead use sticky notes. If you are eating or drinking while reading, take care not to spill onto the book.
Please let us know if you notice that one of our books is damaged! Most problems, like loose or torn pages, peeling spines, and separated covers, can be easily repaired as long as we know to fix them. If you check out a DVD or CD and notice that it doesn’t play properly, please let circulation staff know about the problem when you return the item. Similarly, if you check out a board game and you find that there are pieces missing, let circulation staff know what was missing when you return the item.
Interlibrary loan allows Bertrand Library to borrow materials from other libraries for you to use at no cost to you. If you come across a book, article, or piece of media you want but Bertrand doesn’t own, you can always request it through interlibrary loan and we’ll do our best to get it for you. To do so, you can click on the red GET IT button under the item in our online catalog (which will autocomplete the request form for you), or manually fill out a form in ILLiad, which is our homepage for interlibrary loans.
If Bertrand owns an item in a format inaccessible to you, you can also use interlibrary loan to request a different format. For example, if we own a print copy of a book but the text is too small for you to read comfortably, you can fill out a book request form in ILLiad and specify in the notes section that you would like a large-print copy. Or, if we only own a book as an eBook but physical books are better for you, you can specify in the note section that you would like a print copy. Please note that if you do not specify in the notes section of the request form that you want a different format, your request may be canceled if we already own the item.
At this time, we unfortunately do not have the capability to borrow eBooks through Interlibrary Loan. However, if print books do not work for you, we will do our best to instead locate an eBook copy and purchase it for our collection.