Whether with whimpers or with bangs, or both, our CUNY semester is over. For some of you in the GC community, your degrees are imminent and your days here are done. For all of us, the end of the academic cycle brings a few things to think about.

→ First of all: return those books! You really don’t want to be on a plane headed off to field research, or a summer fellowship, or a few weeks on the beach when you remember the pile of unreturned books on your bedside table, accruing 14 weeks’ worth of fines.

You can return all CUNY library books to any CUNY library, but Interlibrary Loans that you got through the GC have to come back here to the Mina Rees Library.

→ On Tuesday, May 28, the library commences summer hours. From that date until August 27 (the first day of class in the fall semester), the library’s hours will be as follows:

→ If you won’t be in New York to avail yourself of the library’s summer schedule, don’t forget that there are remote services that you can access. In addition to your offsite access to e-resources, the good people at Interlibrary Loan can provide you with Scan & Deliver. That’s exactly what it sounds like: If there’s a book chapter or an article that you need and it exists here at the GC Library in print, our almost-too-amazing-to-be-real ILL department will pull it off the shelves and scan it for you. (Just one chapter or one article in a particular journal issue—copyright issues don’t allow for more.)

Additionally, you can Ask a Librarian from anywhere. The person who answers the 24/7 chat service accessible from the library’s home page (look under the heading Services) may not be a GC librarian, but they’ll provide help, and if you need assistance from the GC in particular you can send us a direct message.

→ If you’re not in NYC this summer but you need a library, you may be able to use one with your Graduate Center credentials, thanks to the new SHARES program we belong to. GC affiliates not only have physical access to library buildings around the country and over the world, but once there can use that library’s e-resources on site. Get the details in this blog post.

→ Finally, for those in our community who are graduating and leaving all this behind: You don’t actually leave all this behind! The Graduate Center is proud to provide alumni access to library resources even after your GC days are done. This includes access to the library building itself and borrowing privileges at the GC Library; it also includes remote access to some e-resources. Your alumni benefits are detailed on the library website here, and we blogged about it here as well.

Have a wonderful, productive summer here or elsewhere, and let us help you make it great.

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