JKM Library Borrowing Privileges

The JKM Library has three tiers of borrowing privileges for local patrons affiliated with McCormick Theological Seminary or the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

As a member library in I-Share, we also offer local patrons the ability to place I-Share requests, and we fill I-Share requests for patrons at other member libraries.

JKM also supplies interlibrary loans through OCLC WorldShare to non-affiliated patrons at non-I-Share partner libraries throughout the State of Illinois.

Local Borrowing  |  I-Share Borrowing  |  Interlibrary Loan

Local Borrowing (McCormick and LSTC affiliates)

Once registered with the JKM Library, as current affiliates of McCormick or LSTC, all local patrons have the ability to:

(Access to the University of Chicago Libraries is obtained through your seminary; please see our partner libraries page for more details.)

If you have any difficulties, please email us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org so that we can make sure your JKM Library account is in good standing and that you have an active OpenAthens login.

For local patrons borrowing physical items held by the JKM Library, the following limits apply:

Tier 1: 28-day loans with 3 renewals (16 weeks max)

  • McCormick or LSTC masters degree, certificate program, or special students
  • Cross-registered students taking classes at McCormick or LSTC
  • Visiting scholars at McCormick or LSTC
  • McCormick or LSTC staff
  • Other current McCormick or LSTC affiliates, e.g. seminary board members

Tier 2: 91-day loans with 2 renewals (39 weeks max)

  • McCormick or LSTC Th.M., D.Min., or Ph.D. students, including the ACTS and ecumenical D.Min. programs
  • McCormick or LSTC adjunct or auxiliary faculty

Tier 3: 365-day loans with 1 renewal (2 years max)

  • McCormick or LSTC regular faculty
  • McCormick or LSTC emeritus faculty

Please note that borrowing physical items, such as books, requires the patron to be close enough to the seminaries to actually pick up and return their loans.

All borrowers are subject to the fines and fees levied by any institution from which they borrow books. You can find more information on our fines and fees page.

Alumni: We can no longer offer borrowing privileges to alumni of McCormick or LSTC. Please see our separate page on resources for alumni.

 

I-Share Borrowing

The JKM Library (ILDS: JKM) is a proud member of I-Share, a union catalog of nearly 100 other academic and research libraries, made possible as a service of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI).

Patrons of the JKM Library have the right to request books, and other materials, from any of the other member libraries. You can see who may have copies of any material you may be looking for in our catalog, and place an I-Share request.

Patrons of any other I-Share member library have the same right to request books, and other materials, from JKM. You can see if JKM has a copy of any material you may be looking for in your own library's catalog, and place an I-Share request.

I-Share loans are sent, by default, to your institution's library. You may, however, specify another I-Share library as the destination for each loan, if one is closer to you.

Every patron gets their I-Share materials for 28 days on the initial loan, up to a maximum of 112 days, or 16 weeks, with renewals. This is roughly equivalent to JKM's tier 1 for local borrowers.

 

Interlibrary Loan (non-affiliates)

The JKM Library (OCLC: IDK) is part of an OCLC WorldShare tier that offers long loan periods, in our case 13 weeks. This has been shown to increase borrower satisfaction, by comparison with standard loan periods and multiple renewals.

Non-consortium ILL: 91-day loans with no renewals

This applies to patrons at all non-I-Share institutions borrowing from JKM, including:

  • The University of Chicago
  • The American Islamic College
  • Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary
  • Loyola University Chicago
  • Public libraries throughout the State of Illinois served by RAILS

While we are partnered with these institutions, no direct relationship applies between their patrons and the JKM Library. And since they cannot access our facilities, since 2023, we have no way to serve them directly. (Cross-registered students at McCormick or LSTC do count as local patrons; see above.)

OCLC allows us to provide this service indirectly. Place your ILL request with the relevant librarians at your institution. They will place a request in OCLC WorldShare with as many libraries as may have the requested material. (We may not be the best or only option!)

If that request gets to us, and we have the material available to lend, we will lend it to your institution, which will lend it to you. In turn, you will return the material to your institution, which will return it to us.

The JKM Library does not lend physical items to institutions outside of the State of Illinois at this time. We are, however, willing to fulfill OCLC copy requests for any physical item in our collections which can safely be scanned.

(If you are a local patron of JKM, and need to borrow something you cannot find at JKM, in another I-Share library, or using the privileges the seminaries have acquired for you at the University of Chicago Libraries, email us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org, and we will see what we can find in OCLC WorldShare. Loan terms will be set by the lending library.)