Renewing your Books (or other Items)

Access to all JKM Library resources, physical or electronic, is enabled using OpenAthens, our single-sign-on platform. This is the online equivalent of your library card.

 

To renew an item borrowed from JKM or any other I-Share library:

  1. First, click on the link to Primo, our online catalog
  2. In the upper right corner, click on "Log into my JKM/I-Share account"
  3. In the pop-up, choose "OpenAthens"

    A pop up window that states, Login using:, and then gives three options to choose from, OpenAthens, Guest login, or Cancel
  4. When you see "Sign in with an OpenAthens account," enter your seminary email address (with the @lstc.edu, @go.mccormick.edu, or @mccormick.edu), and the password you have chosen. Email us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org if you need a password reset.
  5. Back in Primo, your name should appear in the upper right corner. Click on it.
  6. In the menu that appears, click on "My Loans."
  7. On the left side, the schools you have borrowed books from will have a clipboard icon next to them. To see only those, click "All Institutions" at the top and select "Has Activity" instead.
  8. You can only look at one school at a time. "JKM Library Trust (JKM) – Chicago, IL" will be selected by default, but you should look at each to find everything that needs to be renewed.
  9. You can sort the list of items for each library by "Due date - oldest" to bring the items that need renewal to the top of the list.
  10. Click "RENEW" next to each item that you want to renew.

If you've used up your renewals at the lending library, Primo will indicate that the item cannot be renewed. Unfortunately, JKM Library staff cannot renew items borrowed from another I-Share library for you.

However, you can always request the same book again—and if another library has a copy, that one can be sent to you while the one you return is in transit.

 

How Many Times, for How Long?

At JKM, the length of time you can borrow a book and the number of times you can renew it depend on your status as a student (your program of study), or as faculty, or staff. You can find details on that here.

With I-Share loans, everyone is equal. Your initial loan for a book is 28 days. With renewals (including some grace for renewing late), you can have it a maximum of 112 days, or 16 weeks.

Pay attention to your email! 3 days from a book's due date, you should get a reminder email. A week after it was due, you will get an overdue notice. You may still be able to renew the item.

However: 3 weeks after it was due, you will be blocked from borrowing from that library. 5 weeks after it was due, it will be treated as lost, and a fixed fine per item will be charged at the lending library. This will prevent you from borrowing from them until either the book is returned, or (if you've actually lost it) the fine is paid. But: as long as the book is returned properly, your fines and blocks should be cleared automatically.

 

"Lost" Book?

If an unreturned book is declared lost, you will be fined at the lending library, and prevented from borrowing books from that library until either the book is returned (and the fine cleared), or—if the book is actually lost—the fine is paid.

Even though JKM handles the books, I-Share loans are between you and the lending library—though we can help you figure out who to talk to and what to do.

A list of all of the I-Share libraries is available here. Click on the library in question to find their contact information (usually under "Circulation" or "Inter-Library Loan").

If you have a book that has been declared lost, you may be able to get the lending library to renew it manually—especially if you have a plan to get it back to them! Regardless, we recommend returning the book, and requesting another copy from our online catalog.

(And if you can't get to JKM, you can return JKM and other I-Share items at any of the I-Share libraries—map here—and the loan will be discharged when they check it in, instead of whenever it actually gets back to the lending library. Ask at the circulation desk to make sure you're actually returning it to an I-Share library.)

 

Questions? Problems? Contact us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org.