Login to Borrow Direct (books and music scores only)

To login: please use the number beneath the barcode on the BACK of your Princeton ID card and NOT the number on your carrel card. Please contact Firestone Circulation with logon problems.

Borrow Direct is a rapid, patron-initiated borrowing and lending service offered by Princeton University Library and six partner libraries--Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, U-Penn, and Yale.

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• All Princeton students, faculty, and staff may request items through Borrow Direct.
• Material is usually available for pickup within 4-5 business days, from one of 11 pickup locations.
• Items are loaned for 42 days, and there are no renewals allowed.
• The lending library may recall an item at any time, with a new due date.
• Multi-volume sets: only one item (volume) per request. It is the responsibility of the patron to determine if an item is composed of multiple volumes, and to request accordingly.
• You must return Borrow Direct material by the due date, to any library circulation desk. Fines will be assessed by the lender for late, damaged or lost books.

	Materials available through Borrow Direct		Materials NOT available through Borrow Direct
	Picking up material		Returning material
	Eligibility/Login questions		Contact Borrow Direct

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Materials available through Borrow Direct

• Books and printed music (scores) not owned by Princeton and in circulating collections.
• Books and printed music (scores) owned by Princeton but charged out to other users, or otherwise unavailable, e.g. on reserve, non-circulating, or missing.

Materials NOT available through Borrow Direct*

• Books that are available in Princeton’s collections and are not charged out, which may include in-process and on-order items.  
• Journals and journal articles.
• Microforms, rare and reference books, books on reserve at other libraries and other non-circulating materials, and non-book formats (CDs, LPs, videos, etc.).
• Multi-volume sets: a request may not be accepted by Borrow Direct if any volume is "not charged" in the Princeton catalog. One or more volumes must be "charged out" at Princeton in order for a request to be submitted. If requesting is unsuccessful, please request via Interlibrary Loan.

      * Try Princeton’s Interlibrary Loan service for materials not available through Borrow Direct.

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Picking up Requested Material

• You will receive an e-mail when your request is available for pick-up. If you do not receive an e-mail within 4-5 days after placing a request, proceed to your pickup location as the book may have arrived without being processed properly.
• From the moment you place a request until the book is returned to the lending library, you are responsible for that book even if you never pick it up.
• Items may NOT be delivered to locations other than the 11 pickup locations.

Returning Borrowed Material

• You may return Borrow Direct items to any library circulation desk; please allow at least one day for items returned to a branch library to make it back to Firestone Library.
• The item will remain on the shelf until the due date, so please alert your designated pickup location to return your material(s) to the Borrow Direct office if it is no longer needed after it has arrived at Princeton.
• Items received after office hours, M-F 9-5, will not be processed until the following morning. Items returned after hours on Friday or over the weekend may not be processed until the following Monday.
• Please do not return materials to us that were requested directly from another BD school, nor non-BD books that need to be returned to one of the BD schools. The Borrow Direct office is not equipped to handle such items.

Eligibility/Login Questions

• All Princeton faculty, students, and staff with library borrowing privileges and active Princeton e-mail accounts are eligible for Borrow Direct service. Guest borrowers are not eligible.
• If you receive a message that says: "The patron ID you entered is invalid for this library" it may be for one of the following reasons:

  1. You have a RECALLED item that is overdue.
  2. You have accrued Library fines.
  3. You have not yet activated your library account.
  4. Your Library account is no longer active.

Contact Borrow Direct

office: Firestone, A-8-H, during office hours (8:30-5 M-F)
e-mail: bdirect@princeton.edu 
phone: 609-258-7469 

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