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Harold Washington College Library

Library Access

The Harold Washington College Library serves current City Colleges of Chicago students, faculty, and staff. A current CCC ID (meaning the ID holder is registered for the current semester) is required to check out materials.

  • All students, faculty, and staff have access to electronic resources—databases, ebooks, articles, videos, magazines, etc.—both on and off campus. You will be required to login with your CCC username/password for authentication to access electronic resources off campus. 
  • Students who were registered in a previous term but not for the current term can access electronic resources using their CCC credentials but are not allowed to check out physical materials i.e. books from CCC libraries.
  • Borrowing privileges and off-campus access to electronic resources are not available to CCC alumni.
  • CCC libraries are open to the public for computer use only and in-library use only of physical materials.
  • Students can check out and return library materials at any CCC library. Items held by a different campus can be requested for pick up at the CCC library that is most convenient. 
  • Items can be renewed online at library.ccc.edu, in person at a CCC library, or by telephone. View contact information for CCC libraries here.  

Lending/Circulation Policies (apply to students, faculty, and staff)

  • Loan period:
    • Print materials: initial loan of 28 days; 112 days (16 weeks) maximum loan period. Renewals are only possible when there are no other requests for the item. The final due date for students is always the last Friday of the term.
    • Non-print materials: initial loan of 14 days; 28 days (4 weeks) maximum loan period
    • Other items: loan periods may vary by library.
  • Late/overdue fines: no overdue or late fines will be applied, with the exception of fines for reserve (library-use only) materials. At 35 days past the due date items are marked as lost and patrons will be billed. If a lost item is returned, the lost fee will be removed from the patron’s account. Patrons are not billed for items lost by fire, flood, or theft; police reports or insurance claims must be provided.
  • Patrons are responsible for and will be billed for lost or damaged items. Patrons may replace the book in kind with a copy of the same or newer edition of the missing or damaged item, which is preferred (check with the lending library to get guidance on selecting the appropriate edition), or pay the replacement cost of an item (cost is determined by the lending library) at any CCC business office.
  • Fines for non-CCC interlibrary loans items are determined by the lending institution.
  • Reserve items (required textbooks or other materials for a given class) typically do not leave the library and circulate for two hours at a time, with renewals possible only if no one else is waiting for the item. Overdue fines may be applied to reserve items.
  • There is no limit on the number of items that can be checked out at a given time.
  • If a patron has three or more lost books on their account across all CCC libraries, they will be blocked from further borrowing until they have returned or replaced all the lost books.
  • Patrons will be given three “claims returned" items if they believe they returned a book, but it is not present in the library.
  • CCC faculty and staff should contact a CCC library to return an item that’s reached its maximum loan period. If there is no hold the item can be returned and checked out again.