Critical Thinking & Information Literacy
Across the Curriculum
LIBRARY TERMS (WORDS) and how they relate to other,
similar words
REFERENCE:
A person who gives facts about your qualifications for a job, or your
honesty for renting a place to live or borrowing money.
REFERENCE BOOK:
A book that contains a lot of facts about a particular subject.
These books are usually very expensive and are also needed by a
lot of students, so they must stay in the library.
(They cannot be checked out.)
REFERENCE DESK / REFERENCE LIBRARIAN:
The librarian will help you find the answer to your question. There
is always a librarian assigned to be at the reference desk, in the
center of our library.
CHECK OUT:
At the grocery store, you stand in a checkout line when you want to
pay for your groceries and take them home.
In the library, to check out means to give your name and student
number to the person at the circulation desk, so that you can
take home the books or tapes you want.
CIRCULATION DESK:
If a book can be checked out, it can ‘circulate’.
The desk where a book is taken to be checked out is called the
Circulation Desk.
CHECK OUT PERIOD / LOAN PERIOD / BORROWING PERIOD
In a Hospital or Hotel, the Check Out Time is the time of day you
must leave, before you are charged for another day’s stay.
Usually it is around 11 a.m.
In a library, the check out period is the time a book that is
checked out can be kept.
Each library has its own check out period:
The BCC Library Check Out Period for books is 3 weeks.
For magazines it is 1 week.
King County Libraries’ Check Out Period is 28 days for books,
1 week for magazines.
DUE DATE
If a woman is pregnant, the day the baby is expected to be born
is the due date.
In a library, the due date is the day the book or magazine that
has been checked out is expected to be returned to the library.
RENEW
If a book or magazine is due, and you want to keep it longer,
you should renew it.
Reserve materials are shared by a lot of people, though, and they
cannot be renewed.
FINE
If a book or magazine is overdue, that is, if it has been kept after it
is due, then there is a fine placed on the borrower’s record, and
that fine must be paid before the student can register for another
class.
RESERVE
Books or tapes or articles that are going to be used by a lot of
people at almost the same time, are put on reserve, and the check
out period is shorter than usual.
Usually these materials are labeled “Library Use Only”, so they
must be used inside the library.
Created by Kate Bradley
Library Media Center
Spring 2003
Library Media Center
3000 Landerholm Circle S.E.
Bellevue, Washington 98007-6484
