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Seriously put caps on teacher accounts–students don’t have access to those books for long periods of time because of the lack of limits. It’s excessive.

This answer comes from Mary Beth Lock, Director of Access Services:

While it may seem like it is unfair for faculty to have such long loan lengths (up to a year), they are a group of people who also have greater research needs than others in the University. Researchers who are working on a specific research project have needs that extend over years, and involve threading together disparate resources while they are writing treatises that look at knowledge a new way. But we also realize that many times, faculty might have materials checked out that would also help the undergraduate and graduate populations. In order to support those users the library offers two methods to provide equivalent access when an item is checked out. First, when one discovers something that is checked out, they have the ability to initiate a “recall” on the item, as long as the initial person that has checked out the item has had it for at least a month. (The “Hold/Recall” link is to the right of the record beneath the “Services” category of actions.) Second, when an item is checked out, any other individual looking for the same book can request it through Interlibrary Loan, where we will find it from another institution, and borrow it from them on behalf of the requestor.

I hope that one of these two methods help satisfy your need for already checked out material, and thank you for giving the opportunity to highlight some of our services!