George Mason University faculty members may obtain a Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program (RFBP) card from the circulation desk at any University Library. This card identifies the holder as a participant in the RFBP and authorizes access to materials at many academic libraries in the United States and Canada. Once you have obtained the RFBP card from a Mason library, you may borrow items from participating institutions.
RFBP Participating Institutions
The Program
The program generally applies to the faculty based on the main campus of the participating institution. The home institution determines who is eligible for a Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card. The lending library determines whether the card will be accepted for on-site use and/or borrowing.
How Faculty Participate
Materials may be used on the premises of the owning library or may be borrowed, depending on the policy of the lending library.
Privileges vary from institution to institution. A faculty member intending to visit a participating library should ask his or her home library to check online in the OCLC Name-Address Directory for the limitations and relevant policies and practices of the prospective lending library.
A faculty member from an institution participating in the Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program may request a Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card from the home library. To borrow materials, the visiting faculty member must present the Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card and any other identification the lending library requires at the main campus of any participating institution.
Reciprocal Faculty Borrower Responsibilities
- Ask the home library to check the OCLC online Name-Address Directory record for the information pertinent to the institution to be visited.
- Present identification when requesting a Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card from the home library and show that card, along with other required identification, when borrowing materials from another library.
- Observe the regulations of the lending library.
- Return materials, in person or by mail, within the loan period prescribed by the lending library.
- Return materials immediately, in person or by express mail, if recalled by the lending library.
- Pay any and all fines or other charges incurred due to late return of materials or damage to materials.
- Please note that this is a program of privileges. At its discretion, a participating institution may suspend the privileges of its own faculty members or the faculty members of another participating institution.