Library Question?

The library is located in Spangler Learning Center and is open during building hours. Please visit our monthly calendar for our current building hours.

Study rooms are available on a mostly first-come, first-served basis. If you do wish to reserve a study room, you can ask to do so at the Circulation Services Desk by asking for Tim Sandusky, Access Services Coordinator. We can reserve a room for you by placing a “Reserved” sign in the window of the study room stating your preferred day and time. Study room reservations are limited to no more than two hours.

Classrooms in Spangler can be reserved through the Registrar at 614-251-4650.

If you are an outside group looking to host your event on campus, visit the ODU Event Hosting web page for more information.

The purpose of displays in the Ohio Dominican University Library is to educate, inform and promote the sharing of information with the students, staff, and faculty of Ohio Dominican University.

Display Contents
Guided by the Dominican motto, to contemplate truth and to share with others the fruits of this contemplation, the contents of a display ought to:

• promote scholarly and educational use of the library,
• promote awareness of ODU events, services, clubs/organizations, and courses,
• highlight library collections and/or services,
• highlight topics for investigation,
• educate patrons about new methods of research,
• enhance the visual atmosphere of the library, and
• provide an opportunity for learning as well as enrichment among its viewers

Displays are not for the purpose of promoting personal views/opinions, or commercial and organizational positions.

Display Locations
Display areas include: large display table and window on the Top Floor near the entrance/exit doors, the small display table on the Top Floor near the Reading Room, and the foyer space on the Top Floor.

Requesting a Display
Requests can be made online through myODU or by completing a paper form available at the Circulation Services Desk. Display space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Guidelines
Ohio Dominican University Library has established guidelines to ensure ease of accessibility.

• Displays must be of high quality design and execution.
• Preferred objects for display include books, videos, handouts, brochures, posters, and small 3-dimensional objects.
• The Library Circulation Services Supervisor will approve/disapprove each request.
• The Library staff reserves the right to alter or remove any display.
• Displays will normally be approved for a maximum display period of one month.
• The Library staff will provide installation and removal of displays.
• The Library is not responsible for lost, damaged, or stolen personal display items.
• All materials must be picked up promptly at the end of a display period.

Contacts
For more information, contact Access Services Coordinator via email or telephone at (614) 251-4676.

Please notify us if your plans change, because another display may have been requested for the same time period.

For specific questions and answers regarding Interlibrary Loan, please visit our Interlibrary Loan page.

You can pay any fines for materials from the ODU Library, OhioLINK, or Interlibrary Loan at the ODU Library Circulation Desk. We accept fine payments in cash or check.

Or you can pay by credit card in the Business Office, at  Erskine Hall, Room 133.

To return a book or other item to the library, you have 4 options:

• Place it in the library's Book Drop located in the Gold Lot by the Griff - available 24/7
• Place it in the library's drop box located to the right in the outer lobby of Spangler Learning Center - available 24/7
• Place it in the library's drop box located in the library at the Circulation Counter on the top floor of Spangler Learning Center during building hours
• Give it to a library staff member at the Circulation Counter during building hours.

Books and other materials are retrieved from the Book Drop in the parking lot and the drop box in the outer lobby every weekday between 8 and 10 a.m. Items dropped over the weekend will be retrieved Monday morning.When books/materials from these outer locations are checked in, they are backdated to the previous day; weekend items will be backdated to Friday, and items turned in during campus closures are backdated to the last day that Spangler Learning Center was open. 

There are no telephones or fax machines in Spangler for public use. However, there is a fax machine in the Mailroom in Erskine Hall that students can use for a small fee.

The following are official ODU Library building policies. If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact Circulation Services

Noise
To foster a welcoming environment conducive to study and research, the following guidelines have been established concerning appropriate noise levels. Continued excessive noise will be cause for a patron being asked to leave the building.

• General Noise
  The area behind the Main Stacks on the top floor is a designated quiet study area. Quiet conversation among patrons, and group study, is acceptable in other areas of the building, which include the United Nations (UN) Study Lounge, the tables directly in front of the Study Rooms, the tables on the middle floor, and the snack area on the bottom floor.
• Cell Phone Use
  Prior to entering the building, cell phones should be turned off or set to a non-audible ring. Cell phone conversations are only acceptable if they are quiet and non-disruptive to other patrons.

Unsupervised Children
Because Spangler Learning Center staff cannot guarantee the safety of children who are left unattended while parents attend class, and also to ensure an atmosphere conducive to study and research, patrons are discouraged from bringing minors (children under the age of 18) to the Spangler Learning Center.

Publicity
All publicity to be displayed in Spangler Learning Center should be approved at the Student Activities Office or by the Director, Library Services. Publicity may only be posted on designated bulletin boards. Publicity may NOT be posted on glass, walls or doors.

Publicity found in undesignated areas, or any publicity without approval, will be removed. Individuals or organizations are responsible for removing all publicity within 24 hours after the event.

You may have accrued non-library charges for things like color printing, laminating, and purchases of items like CDs from the Information Services Helpdesk.

The ODU Library Circulation Desk can accept payment for these charges in cash or check.

For questions about other non-library fees or charges, please see the Business Office.

ODU professors can keep course materials on reserve at the library.

Search our course reserves by course name/number or by professor/instructor.

More information can be found on our Course Reserves page.

Spangler Learning Center does not have a change machine, but the ODU Business Office provides change during their hours of operation. 

For general information on citation styles, consult ODU Library's Resources for Research & Writing or any of our Research & Citation Help pages of our Research Guides.

If you would like personal assistance, contact the tutors in the Write Place.

We recommend you allow 5-7 business days for your requested item to arrive. Depending on the owning library's location & response time, the item may be delivered anywhere from 3-10 days from the date of request.

You may check the status of your request by logging in to your ODU Library account.

Off-campus access to our databases is always available to current ODU students, faculty, and staff.

Visit our Off Campus Access Help for more information.

Borrowing items from the ODU Library depends on the type of item and whether you are a current student, alumni, or faculty/staff.

View Our Borrowing Policies

Yes. It is completely safe to use any part of the ODU Library Catalog or website on your smartphone or any other mobile device, despite a warning message you might receive.

When you try to use certain parts of the ODU Library Catalog or website, such as My Library Account or Make a Suggestion or Comment, on a smartphone, you may receive a warning about an invalid “website certificate” or “untrusted connection.”  

Simply click or tap the appropriate button (“Accept,” “Continue,” “Add Exception,” etc.) to ignore the warning and continue. 

These warning messages occur because of the type of website (SSL) certificate used by ODU.

A certificate is a special file on a website that allows your smartphone (or computer) to verify the identity of the website. The certificate is created by a trusted organization, called a Certificate Issuer.

Most of the time, the Issuer is automatically recognized by your device, but ODU’s Certificate Issuer, DigiCert, is unknown to some devices. Nevertheless, the certificate is valid, and any information sent between your device and the website is automatically encrypted.

See Figures 1 and 2 for more information about ODU’s Certificate.

OhioLINK is a consortium of Ohio college and university libraries, including ODU Library, that shares library resources.

Through the OhioLINK catalog, you can request materials from other member libraries and have them sent to ODU Library for you to pick up.

More about OhioLINK can be found at http://www.ohiolink.edu/about/what-is-ol.html.

The OhioLINK Library Catalog provides information about the materials available from the member libraries.

Find information about using the OhioLINK Library Catalog from our tutorial, Research 101: Finding Books, ODU Library's research tutorial.

You'll be able to search for scholarly articles in our library research databases, available from our A-Z Databases page.

For more information about scholarly articles & database searching, visit our Research 101: Panther Know-How tutorial.

Yes, the library does have a Book Drop, located in the Gold Lot by the Griff.

All library materials, including DVDs, VHS tapes, and CD-ROMs, can be placed in the book drop.

Materials dropped in the Book Drop are protected from the elements.