MSVU’s Library is a member of the Novanet Consortium. Students, faculty and staff with a valid I.D. card may borrow from any other Novanet member library, which includes most of the universities in Nova Scotia! (For a complete list, please follow this link: List of Novanet Member libraries).
Alumni and members of the public may also have library privileges as Off Campus Borrowers. Some limits may apply; please see our Alumni and Community Services Library page.
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Students, staff, and faculty of the Mount are able to order and return items from any of the Novanet member libraries to be delivered to the most convenient member library using the document delivery service. This is a free service and it will take approximately 3 – 5 business days from time of ordering to be delivered to the Novanet institution of your choice. You will be contacted by email when the item arrives.
In order to take advantage of this service, you must have a valid Student or Faculty ID card in good standing (generally returning items on time, not too many fines or overdue/lost items, etc). These ID Cards are issued by the Library. Your library account should be activated 24 hours after your registration is complete.
CURBA
CURBA (Canadian Universities Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement) is an agreement which allowed all students, faculty, and staff of a Canadian university to borrow materials from another Canadian university library. For more information on CURBA, please speak with Mount Library staff or email library@msvu.ca.
Library Loans and Renewals
A current Mount ID card and an updated library account are required to borrow materials from the Mount Library. There is no borrowing limit for Mount students and faculty -- you may borrow as many books as you like. You also have the option to access eBooks and article databases.
The general loan period for materials from the Mount is 21 days (3 weeks). Items borrowed from other Novanet libraries or requested through Document Delivery may have different loan periods; you can check your current loans and due dates by logging in to your library account.
Faculty, graduate students and staff are able to borrow Mount books on a term basis.
Due dates by term:
| Summer: | September 30 |
| Fall: | January 30 |
| Spring: | May 30 |
Undergraduate honours thesis students, please contact the library if you need extended loans.
Loans from the Mount Library can be renewed (extended) up to three times. You can renew borrowed materials through your library account as long as the due date has not yet passed, and no one else has placed a request for the same item. If you are unable to renew your item or the due date for it has passed, call or email the library staff at 902-457-6250 or library@msvu.ca, and we'll be happy to help you.
Sometimes the book you are looking for may not be available at the Mount Library, but another library in the Novanet system might have it. When this happens, you can put in a 'Request' in the Novanet system to have the book sent to you. Full instructions are available in the Requesting a Book or Chapter instructions listed in our Research Help guide.
Course Reserves are materials your professor has set aside for you with the Library, and can be searched for by course number or professor's name in Novanet under Course Reserves and Readings on the Library home page. Please see the Course Reserves section of this guide for more details.
Laptops are available for 1 day (24 hour) loan from the Library desk. For more information, please contact the Front Desk at library@msvu.ca.
At present, we are not loaning out headphones or headsets due to hygienic concerns during the pandemic.
The Library has the following phone chargers available for 3-hour loan:
Photocopy cards are sold at the Library Front Desk for a 1.00 deposit, plus 0.10 a page. The cards are loaded/reloaded with money at the desk; you may pay via debit, credit, or cash for however many pages you need. Please see the Front Desk for more details. When you no longer need the card, you may return it at the desk to reclaim your 1.00 deposit.
You may also scan and email documents to yourself for free, and print them with your print credits. For more information on your print credit account, please check out the "Printing and Scanning" section of this guide.
Novanet Libraries have done away with late fines on general loan items!
However, several items at the library can still incur late fines, such as Course Reserves, technology like laptops and tablets, room keys, etc. due to their high demand and/or hard-to-replace nature. All items can still incur fees for loss and replacement if they are overdue for too long.
Excessive fines on your account or failure to return/pay for lost items will result in a system-wide suspension of borrowing privileges and the withholding of grades and transcripts. Overdue accounts may be sent to a collection agency.
The Mount Library accepts the following forms of payments:
Payments can be made at the Library Desk. We are also able to complete Visa and Mastercard payments over the phone by calling the Library at 902-457-6250.
Within Nova Scotia:
Your Mount ID card allows you to borrow physical materials from any university/college library that is a Novanet Member. For a full list of Novanet Libraries, please visit the official Novanet page here. You may also request items from any Novanet library and have them delivered to the Novanet library of your choice for pickup.
Please note that due dates for materials borrowed from other libraries may differ from those for Mount materials; always check your due dates in your library account!
Most academic libraries will also allow on-site access to their databases via public work stations.
BARA – Borrow Anywhere Return Anywhere
Materials borrowed from a Novanet library may be returned to any public, university, or college library, and they will be returned to the owning library through the BARA program. Likewise, materials you have borrowed from the public library can also be returned to the Mount Library or any other Novanet library for return to the public library. Please be aware that there may be some time where the items still appear on your account; once the item is received by the owning library, the return will be backdated.
Also, please note that your Mount ID is not a public library card; you will still require a public library card to borrow from public libraries.
For more information about the BARA program, or to see a list of participating libraries, please visit this link: https://lamns.ca/initiatives/borrow-anywhere-return-anywhere-bara/
Within Canada: Canadian University Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement (CURBA)
The CURBA agreement allows Mount students and faulty to borrow from most other Canadian universities while travelling (with exceptions: the University of Toronto, Ontario College of Art and Design, and Quebec university libraries do not lend materials to undergraduates of other institutions or provinces). The Mount Library can issue CURBA cards by request. Only one CURBA card may be issued to you during your time at MSVU, and it must be presented alongside a valid Mount ID card when borrowing from participating CURBA libraries.
For more information on the CURBA agreement or to request a CURBA card, please contact the library at library@msvu.ca.
If you are a distance student or faculty member looking for a CURBA card, please see the library’s Distance Services guide for more information on how to request a card.