Library Membership and Circulation Policy
Membership
The libraries at the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) are open to the following membership types:
Internal members:
- All IAU affiliates, including: students, faculty and staff are eligible for free library membership.
External members:
- External Membership is subject to a Refundable Security Deposit (Earnest Money) of SAR500.
- Members are enrolled for a period of one year, which is renewable at the user’s request.
- A member willing to renew the membership for another year will have to submit the below-mentioned valid documents afresh.
- No library membership fee is charged.
Required documents for library membership:
- Completed library membership application form.
- A copy of National ID (Saudi Nationals) OR
- Iqama/ valid passport (non-Saudi applicants).
Circulation
Library material types and permissions:
| Permission | Type of Library Materials |
| Issuable materials |
Single or multi-volume books (Textbooks and general books). Textbooks and General books’ issuance will be treated separately with respect to the Duration and Users’ category. |
| Non-issuable materials | Reference books, cultural works, manuscripts, rare books, statistics, graphs, theses, periodicals (English/ Arabic), audiovisual materials, microfilms, e-resources, bulletins, book notes, research reports, one copy of every textbook, and books in use of library staff. |
Summary of Circulation Privileges:
| Number of book allowed | Number of book allowed |
Issuance |
Issuance |
Late Return Fine | Late Return Fine |
Books Reserve Privilege |
Books Reserve Privilege |
|
|
Membership Category |
Text-books | General books | Text-books | General books | First 10 days | After 10 days | No of books | Reserve Period |
| IAU Faculty/ Teaching Staff | 05 books (including maximum 03 text-books) | 05 books (including maximum 03 text-books) | 03 weeks | 03 weeks | SAR 2 Per day Per book | SAR 5 Per day Per book | 05 | One week |
| IAU Graduate Students | 05 books (including maximum 03 text-books) | 05 books (including maximum 03 text-books) | One week | Two Weeks | SAR 2 Per day Per book | SAR 5 Per day Per book | 05 | One week |
| IAU Under-graduate Students | 03 books | 03 books | One week | Two Weeks | SAR 2 Per day Per book | SAR 5 Per day Per book | 03 | One week |
| IAU Staff (Non-teaching) |
03 books (Text-books/ general books). |
03 books (Text-books/ general books). |
One week | Two Weeks | SAR 2 Per day Per book | SAR 5 Per day Per book | 03 | One week |
| External Users | X | 03 | X | Two Weeks | SAR 2 Per day Per book | SAR 5 Per day Per book | X | X |
Circulation Rules:
- Any renewal of issued items should be made one day before the due date, and the renewal will be for further one week only.
- Renewals can be made through the library’s website, or in person.
- For re-issue of a returned item, borrowers must wait for THREE days until they can borrow the same returned book again, provided that the same title is not required by another borrower.
- The members can collect their reserved books on a first come, first serve basis. If a member fails to collect the reserved books, he/she will forfeit his/her reservation.
- In the case of overdue books, the system will start calculating fine, and the library will send two reminders;
a) First due-date notification will be sent one day prior to the due-date.
b) Second notification will be sent after the three (03) days of expiry of due-date.
- The user account will be blocked/ barred when the unpaid fine amount touches the maximum limit of SAR 300. The user can immediately re-activate account by paying the fined amount. But if the user repeats the same, the account will be blocked for one month.
- If a student’s account is not cleared within 45 days, he/she will lose his/ her library privileges for a period of an entire semester.
General Rules
-
No category of library users may terminate the relationship with the university or library until clearance has been obtained from the library.
- If any borrower loses his or her books or causes apparent damage to them, making it impossible to make full use of them or part of them, the library must be compensated with another book of the same edition, title, date of publication, or newer edition, and the book should be in excellent condition, in addition to the value for technical processing of the book (25 Riyals).
- If the user is unable to provide a copy of the same book, he will pay for it or pay for the last edition of it, plus the value for the technical processing (SAR 25).
- If the book is out of print or is one of the donated books and does not have a price tag, the library management estimates its price and adds to it the value of the technical processing (25 Riyals). The committee's estimate is final and may not be disputed.
- The user is denied access to library services if he violates any of the conditions of the library's policy and exposes himself to sanctions in accordance with the university's established regulations.
- Borrowing is not permitted at all without the university ID card for university students, faculty, and staff.
- The material can be renewed by the user in person from the library or from the website of the Deanship of Library Affairs through the user services.
- The library may recall the issued material during the borrowing period.
- It is not permissible to borrow two copies of the same book.
- When the borrower receives the book, this is an acknowledgment that the book is in good condition and it must be returned in the same condition.
- The library has the right to determine the duration of the borrowing of frequently borrowed books.
- Fines are collected by the employees of the leading departments of the University libraries of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University or automatically deducted through electronic services.
- The amounts due to the delay are deposited in the student fund.
