Library Policies

Reservations

  • Reservations are held until closing on the first day of your reservation and will be cancelled at closing.
  • Reservations are first-come, first-serve whether in person, on the phone, or online.
  • Reservations are not guaranteed.  If there is a problem, we will do our best to contact you.
  • If a reservation is made for the same type of equipment multiple times, there must be 7 days between loan periods.  Contact Anna Lewis directly for extenuating circumstances.
  • Reservations may be made for up to half of any available type of equipment (ie, if we have 6 camcorders, you may reserve up to 3).

Loan Periods

  • Loan periods are 7 days/6 nights long.  They could be shorter.
  • You may request 2 extended loans per semester.  Extended loans may not exceed 14 days.
  • You may renew equipment once, if it is available.
  • You may not renew extended items & you may not extend renewed items.
  • Equipment cannot be renewed using your library catalog account.

Due Dates and Times

  • Equipment that is not returned by ONE HOUR PRIOR TO MERIT CLOSING on the date it is due is overdue.  This is typically 9pm Sunday through Thursday and 5pm on Fridays.
  • You will be given a pink equipment reservation slip with the due date and time.  Retain it.
  • If you are unable to return equipment on time, contact MERIT Library at (608) 263-4750.  If we are not open, please leave a message.
  • Patrons with severely overdue equipment (>5 days) are subject to having their borrowing privileges revoked.  UW Police and/or the Dean of Students may be contacted.

Overdue Fines

  • Equipment not returned by the due date and time will be assessed a $20/day overdue fine.

Missing Parts

  • Equipment is only considered returned once all parts have been returned.
  • We double-check an double-discharge all equipment between check-outs.
  • We strongly encourage borrowers to double-check equipment before leaving MERIT Library.  Once the equipment has left MERIT Library, you will be held responsible for any missing parts.
  • By borrowing equipment from MERIT Library, you agree to accept financial responsibility for the replacement of any missing parts as well as a process fee of $10.

General Reminders

  • MERIT Library is not responsible for any damaged or lost data incurred while using MERIT Library equipment.
  • You are expected to adhere to UW-Madison Information Technology Appropriate Use Guidelines.
  • MERIT Library does not charge equipment batteries.
  • You are asked to return equipment with fully charged batteries.
  • If you are using this equipment in PreK-12 schools, please protect the privacy of those individuals when using and/or storing any of the images or footage.
  • By borrowing equipment from MERIT Library, you agree to report any and all problems with the equipment.
  • By borrowing equipment from MERIT Library, you agree to accept responsibility for the loss, theft, damage, and/or replacement of the equipment or equipment parts.
  • Patrons who violate these policies are subject to having their MERIT Library equipment borrowing privileges suspended or revoked.

This form is for patrons who are claiming they have returned material(s) that are still showing up in their library account.

Please note that after you fill out this form, the MERIT Library will search for the item(s) for six weeks. During that time, we ask that you continue to search your home, office, car etc. for the item. Over 80% of items are found by the patron. If, at the end of the six week period, the item has not been found or returned, the MERIT Library will decide whether or not to forgive or deny the claims return. This decision is largely based on the specificity of your explanation below.

This form applies ONLY to MERIT Library Equipment. All other library-related fines or charges should be appealed through the Memorial Library website. This form may not be used to appeal charges involving lost equipment or equipment parts.

Our Philosophy on Overdue Equipment Fines:

The MERIT Library aims to make equipment available to all School of Education students, faculty, and staff. To achieve this goal, we enforce firm policies which include overdue fines. These fines are designed to serve as an incentive to return equipment on time, so that subsequent patrons are not disadvantaged.

How to Appeal an Overdue Equipment Fines:

Please fill out the form completely and with as much detail as possible. Users have until the end of the academic term in which the equipment was borrowed to appeal the overdue fine. You will be notified of the outcome of this appeal within one week submission of this form. For charges over $100, your appeal will be reviewed by a three-person MERIT Library Fine Review Board. For questions regarding this form, please contact the MERIT Library Circulation desk at (608)263-4750.

The following justifications are NOT valid and will result in the denial of the appeal:

  1. Borrower was unaware of the due date (Users can check their MadCat account).
  2. Borrower was unaware of MERIT Library hours (Users assume responsibility for knowing MERIT Library hours on the authorization form. MERIT Library Hours are also available on the MERIT Library website and voicemail).
  3. Borrower was unaware of equipment policies because they did not read the equipment authorization form. (By signing the authorization forms, users admit that they “have read and agree to the policies”).
  4. Borrower returned equipment to the MERIT Library drop-box on Clymer place (Drop-box clearly states that equipment should not be returned there).
  5. Borrower tried entering the Teacher Education Building through the Mills or Dayton St entrances after 4:30pm. (Information about other open entrances is posted on those doors).
  6. Borrower is making an appeal after the academic term in which the equipment was checked-out.

The following information must be completed in order for your appeal to be considered. Incomplete forms will be denied. You will be notified of the outcome of this appeal within one week submission of this form. For questions regarding this form, please contact the MERIT Library Circulation desk at (608)263-4750.

Equipment Fine Appeal

  • MM slash DD slash YYYY
  • MM slash DD slash YYYY
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Goal

MERIT Library is designed to serve the information needs of the students, staff and faculty of the School of Education. MERIT Library’s primary mission is the provision of materials and services for programs related to teacher training and certification. The Library’s budget is predicated on the primary mission and does not provide for the development of a research collection.

Campus Library Collection Responsibilities

The School of Education includes departments which emphasize the traditional subject areas of the discipline of education, as well as the departments of Art and Kinesiology. Library support for the academic departments of the School is provided by the campus libraries, which have responsibility for the materials in the departments’ subject area.

MERIT Library’s collection is developed to serve the needs of the teacher certification programs in the departments of Curriculum & Instruction, Physical Education, and Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education. In supporting these programs, the Library does not attempt to develop comprehensive subject discipline collections, but rather emphasizes those resources which are directly applicable to teacher education and training. Materials are also collected in those programs in educational administration and counselor education which are directed towards the elementary and secondary school community. Materials in the areas of educational sociology and educational psychology are collected in support of courses for teacher certification and training programs.

The U.W. General Library System is responsible for the acquisition and maintenance of materials related to upper-level research in the disciplines noted in the paragraph above, as well as support for the disciplines of higher education, comparative and international education, history and philosophy of education, educational philosophy and educational sociology. Other campus libraries which provide support to the programs of the School of Education include, but are not limited to, the Law Library (educational law), the Health Sciences Library (kinesiology) and the Kohler Art library (fine arts). Extensive runs of serials are held by the campus resource libraries: Memorial (social sciences and humanities); Steenbock Memorial Library (biological sciences); Wendt Library (physical sciences) as well as the Health Sciences and Law libraries. The State Historical Society serves as the official depository for the publications of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, as well as for the U.S. Department of Education. Digital collections and archives are maintained by the U.W. Digital Collections Center.

MERIT Library promotes collaboration in collection development with other U.W. System libraries supporting teacher training programs; with the Madison School and Community Education Library (MSCEL, the learning resource center for Madison Metropolitan School District); and with other UW-Madison libraries. Acquiring copies of materials on order or held by these libraries is limited in order to increase budget efficiency and the uniqueness and depth of each library’s collection.

Scope of the Collection

MERIT Library’s collection includes materials for the professional development of the teacher, examples of commercially produced textbooks, instructional materials, and a representative sampling of the supplementary materials, including electronic resources, that would typically be located in a school library media center.

Professional Development Materials

Titles related to the professional development of the teacher are selected in the areas of the theory and practice of education, curriculum, educational psychology, special education, physical education, educational technology, educational testing and measurement, childhood development, counseling and guidance, and educational administration related to preschool through grade 12 education. The professional collection also includes materials in adult education and teacher education, as well as a sampling of tests and inventories relevant to the certification programs of the School. Tests and inventories purchased for the MERIT Library collection must be recognized as suitable for use by the public by their publisher and by the American Psychological Association. Recommendations or requests for specialized titles of advanced research, highly technical books, foreign language publications, and doctoral theses will be referred to appropriate selectors at other campus libraries. The Library does not typically collect textbooks appropriate to higher education.
The journals collected by MERIT Library include titles in support of the certification programs noted in the above paragraph. Duplication of print and electronic subscriptions is avoided when practical.

Reference Collection

The reference collection provides a sampling of basic reference sources which are related to teacher training and certification. These materials include specialized educational encyclopedias, dictionaries, statistical sources and bibliographies. In recognition of the teacher’s role in selecting instructional and supplementary resources for use in the classroom, guides to instructional resources and children’s and young adults’ print and non-print materials are also collected.

Instructional and Supplemental Materials

The primary purpose of the Pre-Kindergarten through 12th Grade (PreK-12) collection is to support the professional curriculum of the School of Education. These materials are designed to be used by students as they learn to identify, select, evaluate and use a multiplicity of resources in developing the curriculum for elementary and secondary students. The reading level of these materials ranges from preschool to secondary, with a strong emphasis on materials for preschool through the middle school years. Instructional and supplementary materials are collected in print and non-print formats in those subject areas in which the School offers teacher certification.
Since these materials are primarily intended for use by the teacher in training rather than for classroom practice, the teacher’s edition of instructional texts and accompanying workbooks is the first purchase priority. The Madison School and Community Education Library collects student editions of current textbooks used by or under consideration by the Madison Metropolitan School District. MERIT Library’s PreK-12 and Professional collections are developed to provide a current, not a historical, perspective. The materials in these collections are periodically evaluated for their currency.

Selection of materials

Responsibility for the selection of materials for the collection is divided by subject area among the professional staff of MERIT Library. Selections are made based upon criteria developed for each type of material. Materials are selected based on favorable reviews, inclusion in standard listings and bibliographies, faculty, staff and student recommendations, as well as by examining materials which are provided to the Library by vendor approval plans.

Purchase Recommendations

Selectors welcome and encourage faculty and student assistance in developing the collection. Faculty and students may submit requests to any of MERIT Library’s professional staff, to the Reference Desk, or by way if the online request forms provided in MadCat or on the MERIT Library web site. Requests for materials which do not fall within scope of the Library’s collection may be referred to another campus library. The requestor will be notified of the Library’s decision regarding the request.

Reserve Materials

MERIT Library will purchase materials that are requested for reserve by faculty and staff in the School of Education. Materials that are required readings for School of Education and are needed for reserve will be purchased even if they do not fall within the scope of the Library’s collection development policy. Unless a need for multiple copies is demonstrated, purchase of reserve titles is generally limited to one copy per title.

Assessment and De-selection

The MERIT Library collection is periodically reassessed and updated. Materials are removed which selectors deem inaccurate, out of date, irreparably damaged, insufficiently used, or inappropriate to the scope of the collection. Titles are retained if not available by collaborating libraries. Titles removed may be given to another campus library, donated to Friends of Wisconsin Libraries, and/or replaced by new editions.

Revised August 2009