St. Mark’s Library and Burke Library (Directions & Hours) at Union Theological Seminary have had reciprocal borrowing privileges for time immemorial. The agreement has been in place for such a long time that the original paperwork has been lost to the dustbins of history. In 2004, Union transferred its library holdings to Columbia and Burke is now part of the Columbia University Library System. This makes using library a bit more complicated for the GTS community.
Although there are still some kinks to work out, the directions for obtaining borrowing privileges at Burke Library are posted below. Please note that you may visit Burke with a valid GTS ID, but you will NOT be able to check out books without a Columbia University ID.
1. Make sure you have two forms of ID: a valid GTS ID card (get a sticker for the current semester) and a government issued ID.
2. Go to the Library Information Office (LIO) in Butler Library at Columbia University (Map, Directions & Hours)
3. Pay $20 by personal check, MasterCard, or Visa (no cash) to obtain a Columbia University ID (CU ID)
4. You are now able to borrow items from Burke Library.
Some notes:
-Circulating materials are charged for 28 days.
-The CU ID is valid for one year and can be renewed without an additional fee with valid GTS status. Lost IDs are replaced for a fee.
-Offsite Materials can be paged using a login account, called a UNI, distributed along with the CU ID.
-All overdue fines and lost book charges are the responsibility of the borrowing patron.
If you have any questions, leave a comment so everyone can see the answer.
Have fun on the 1 train!
Follow
I went to the LIO in Butler yesterday and they sent me to the ID center on the ground floor of Kent which is very close. There I received a UTS id, but I believe I still may need a sticker which students at Union tell me I can get from the accounting office on the fifth floor of Union. I’ll post another comment when I confirm that is the case.
P.S. I did not have to pay anything which was nice. I am not sure why.
Nell
Signing up for Union Library access at the Columbia Library went surpringly smoothly last night. The Lib Info Office (LIO) is right inside the door to the left.
Altho I haven’t yet used this card at the Burke Library to check out books, the process itself was one-stop and did not require a letter of introduction as previously expected in other seasons.
Nor did it (as of yet, anyway) garner me a barcode sticker applied to either my GTS Student ID or the dandy Columbia U one they gave me. Quite a serious ID card it was: a thick plastic job with the barcode encoded in an internal chip and a picture printed in the plastic
Once you get to the LIO, you do need to put yourself in their hands and be very patient. I bet it will go differently for everyone who tries it. My student worker was very competent and detail-oriented, but did need to ask 2 other people questions about the situation with GTS.
We seem to have Visitor Status, a one-full-year time-length, and the ability to check out books at the Burke only, and perhaps even some elements of functionality within the Columbia web-site which it will be interesting to scope out by signing on there. The whole process took less than 20 minutes