Borrowing Materials

Loan Peri­ods

• 3 weeks — Books, DVDs, audio­books and music CDs
• 1 week — Passes
• 8 weeks — Book Group Take-Out Kits

Check­out limits

You may have a total of 75* items checked out to one library card at a time.

DeKalb Coun­ty Pub­lic Library mate­ri­als can be returned to a branch either inside the library at the Cir­cu­la­tion Desk or out­side the library in the book drop.

*Due to high­er demand, there is a lim­it of fif­teen (15) DVD­s/Blu-rays and five (5) peri­od­i­cals that may be checked out to one library card at a time. Please note: The Decatur Library does not cir­cu­late periodicals.

Renewals

Most mate­ri­als can be renewed three times unless

• there are holds on the item
• you owe $10 or more in fines or fees
• you have more than 20 items overdue

Items can be renewed online by vis­it­ing My Account in the Library Cat­a­log, or by vis­it­ing or call­ing any DeKalb Coun­ty Pub­lic Library branch. You will need your library card num­ber and PIN.

Holds on Materials

• You may place a Hold for any cir­cu­lat­ing library mate­r­i­al cur­rent­ly checked out or owned by any library branch. Find the item you want in the Library Cat­a­log and click on ​“Place a Hold”. Fol­low the on-screen instructions.
• There is no charge for plac­ing a Hold.
• Staff can assist you in plac­ing Holds in the library or over the phone. Phone requests are lim­it­ed to three items.
• You may have up to 15 Holds at one time. When plac­ing Holds on DVDs, please remem­ber the check­out lim­it of fif­teen DVD­s/Blu-rays.
• Please allow 2 – 4 days for an item that is avail­able at anoth­er branch to be shipped to you branch. If you need the item soon­er, please call that branch and ask them to pull the book for you.
• You can be noti­fied that your Hold is ready for pick­up by e‑mail or text. You can also check My Account in the Library Cat­a­log to see if your Hold is ready for pick-up.
• Items remain on the Hold Shelf for six days.
• Please alert Library staff if you notice a Hold request is about to expire on your account so that time can be extended.

Inter­li­brary Loan

Through Inter­li­brary Loan (ILL), you can bor­row items from oth­er libraries that DeKalb Coun­ty Pub­lic Library does not own, such as: books, peri­od­i­cals or ref­er­ence arti­cles or genealog­i­cal mate­ri­als. Read more about this ser­vice.

Over­due Notices and Bills

To assist you in keep­ing track of mate­ri­als checked out on your card, the Library sends notices on the fol­low­ing schedule:

If you have been billed for an item and you return it, you will only owe the over­due fine. If you pay for a lost item and lat­er find it and return it, you may be eli­gi­ble for a par­tial refund if the item is in good con­di­tion and has not been with­drawn from the Library’s collection.