Resources for Students

The Divinity School Library is one of the Duke Professional School Libraries. Although it is located within the Duke Divinity School, it serves as the primary religion collection for the entire Duke University Community. Your Duke ID card is your Divinity Library card.

Checking Out Materials

Students must present their University ID cards at the circulation/reserves desk to check out materials from the library. Books have semester loans for all graduate students, including Divinity and Religion and 4 week loans for undergraduates.

Please note that books may be recalled for use by another patron after two weeks. Return recalled books promptly as there is a fine of $3/day past due date for recalls. To protect your privacy, the library does not give out the name of the patron who has checked out a book. We can, at your request, make a special effort to recall a book quickly.

Document Delivery

Document Delivery assists scholarly research by obtaining library materials. Document delivery locates needed materials in other libraries, borrows books and microforms and obtains photocopied/scanned material on behalf of eligible Duke patrons. See the Document Delivery page for more information and forms for submitting requests.

Fines

Other than the fines above for recalls and reserves, there are no fines in the traditional sense. We will send an overdue notice at 10 days and a bill at 30 days. Replacement cost is $100 per book. In addition, there is a non-refundable, $25-per-book processing fee assessed with this bill. All library notices are sent via email to the account listed with the registrar's office (usually your Duke acpub account). If you don't regularly check your Duke email, please forward your Duke email to another account.

Renewals

Books may be renewed in person, by calling (660-3450), or by using the "Your library account" feature of Duke's Online Catalog.

Reserves

Course reserves are given loan periods of 3-hour or Overnight (10:30 AM the next day during the week, Monday over the weekend, negotiable until Tuesday.) Fines for overdue reserves are $0.50/hr. The purpose of reserves policy is to maintain access to materials in short supply. Please assume all reserve materials are needed by others. Professors/instructors make the final decision about the terms of use for a book or article. The library makes final decisions about fines.

Security

Students are reminded that although we are a seminary library, Durham is a fairly large city and that the Divinity Library is open to the larger University and the public. Please do not leave any belongings unattended. We cannot guarantee the safety of items that are left unmonitored.

Study Carrels

Assigned CarrelsĀ 
The Divinity Library has a limited number of desks/study carrels that are available for assignment to doctoral students from the ThD Program and the PhD Program in Religion. Occupancy is for one semester and is determined by lottery. An application/entry for the lottery is available here and describes all current policies governing carrels.

Open Carrels
Most seating is open seating and is available each day on a first come/first served basis. Library Books found in study carrels will be reshelved each evening. Again, please do not leave belongings unattended in the library.

TRLN

The libraries of Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill participate in a cooperative library lending agreement. Faculty members, currently enrolled students, administration officials, and members of the university staffs may obtain borrowing privileges from the participating libraries. See the TRLN website for more information.