Are you a Citrus student and didn’t find the resources you were looking for at the Hayden Memorial Library? Or have you been wondering how you can use Azusa Pacific University’s library, a stone’s throw from Citrus?
The Inland Empire Academic Libraries cooperative program at Citrus offers you the opportunity to do so.
Through the IEALC program, Citrus students can borrow books and use the physical space of participating libraries.
The program is the coming together of colleges in the Inland Empire to give students access to reciprocal borrowing and library facility usage. Thirteen colleges are participating in this program.
Sarah Bosler, the public service librarian at Citrus, said students who want to use the other participating library’s campus will need to sign up and get a card at the Hayden Memorial Library, which students will present to library officials in other campuses to check out physical books or use their database on campus.
Hayden Memorial Library supervisor Matthew Tabizon said in an email that applying for an IEALC card is free to registered Citrus College students.
Tabizon said interested students should visit the research assistance desk to speak with a librarian and bring their Citrus College photo ID, which they can obtain at the library. After obtaining additional information about the resources the student needs, the librarian will ascertain if the campus library has access to them.
“If our college does not have access to the resource(s), we can check IEALC membership institutions and offer the student an IEALC card on the spot,” Tabizon said.
With this program, Citrus students could also study at participating campus libraries.
Different colleges have different library policies, and students will have to visit other campuses and talk to their library officials. APU, the closest participating university to Citrus, only allows students of participating colleges to use their online database exclusive to the physical campus.
APU also allows free parking for participating students, but only on certain lots. Students can then walk to any of the APU libraries, Bosler said.
Bosler said one of the major ways students can benefit from this program is not just through its borrowing privileges but also through the opportunity to use the physical space of other libraries, and it just happens to be that a lot of Citrus students have asked about how they can use the APU libraries.
In addition to borrowing physical materials, Bosler said students get to visit other campuses. If they are interested in transferring to any of IEALC participating schools or if they just want to experience another college campus or another college library, students could make a fun field trip to experience those things, she said.
Also, students can use other libraries to study, especially if the libraries stay open past Citrus’ library hours, which comes in handy during finals week. Bosler said students have asked if the Citrus library was going to have longer hours during finals, which she said is one thing that sparked the renewed focus on the program. “We’ve been kind of thinking about ways to expand students’ access to resources beyond the college,” Bosler said.”
Tabizon said Citrus has maintained membership since at least 2009. Tabizon said librarians and faculty work together to acquire primary, secondary and study support materials that support the breadth of the academic and vocational programs Citrus College offers.
“By promoting IEALC to Citrus College students we also hope to spread our foundational values of intellectual freedom, equitable access, literacy and learning,” he said.
