FOLIO Library Migration

This summer the Five Colleges Libraries completed implementation of FOLIO, a new shared library services platform. Things may look a little different to you at first, but the services you know and use are still available!

See below to learn more about updates to your library account and our improved circulation policies.

Still have questions? Contact library@amherst.edu or use the Chat box on this page under Ask a Librarian.

Discover is not a new tool in the Five Colleges, but with our migration to FOLIO we’ve shifted your library account features to Discover. You will be able to view your loans, request, and renew items in this one platform, in addition to searching the Five College catalog and our databases.

See the Access My Library Account section to learn how to sign in to your library account and use common features.

This shift includes some improvements to your library account:

• You can now view all of your Five College loans listed together in order by due date

• You can see what number you are in the request queue for Amherst and Five College items

• Items you have already requested are clearly marked when you are signed in to your account when searching the catalog

As part of our system migration, the Five Colleges Libraries worked together to review and revise circulation policies across the consortium. Our goal was to align our policies to provide you with a consistent and positive experience across our libraries. The result? Longer loan periods! More renewals! No more overdue fines!

Loan periods and renewals

Visit our Loan Periods page to see our updated policies for students, faculty and staff, and area residents. Here are some notable changes:

• Faculty and Staff now have 1 year loan periods and unlimited renewals for items borrowed from the general collections across the Five Colleges (an increase from 90 days, with 3 renewals)

• Students, faculty and staff can now borrow DVDs/media/journals for 7 days, with 2 renewals (an increase from 5 days, with 2 renewals for students)

Fees & fines

As part of our efforts to continue addressing questions of equity and access, and to remove barriers to essential resources, the Five Colleges Libraries are discontinuing the following overdue fines:

• Course reserves. Patrons will receive courtesy notices instead of fines when an item is overdue. After 24 hours, if the item is not returned, we will bill the item to your account.
   
• Recalled items. Books may be recalled from you when another patron has requested them or if they are needed for the Reserves collection at the Library. When this happens, we will adjust your due date. We will no longer charge a $2/day late fee for recalled items returned past their due date, but if an item is 7 days overdue we will bill the item to your account.

Our new library system will generate a number of automated notices in response to your loans, just as our previous system did. One nice improvement is that FOLIO is able to send notices in real time, rather than on a set schedule. This will be especially helpful when you are borrowing an item for a short period of time (e.g. a computer charger or reserve book), as your courtesy due date reminder notices will now dependably come 30 minutes before your item is due.
 

FOLIO’s automated notices are sent from noreply@libraries.fivecolleges.edu. This is a no-reply email address, and is not configured to receive incoming mail.

If you have a question about a notice you’ve received, please forward the message and your question to Access Services at libcirc@amherst.edu, or give us a call at 413-542-2373.