Information search
The Virtual Library is the best place to start your search for a book. If you are looking only for printed resources, select “Books, journals, manuscripts” in the search box “Library resources”. Virtual Library Help>>
Once you have found an item you are looking for, first of all note the reading room it is kept in.
If you are going to read on the weekend, items should be ordered in advance. The ordered items will be kept in the appointed reading room for three days.
Items in the open stacks are freely available.
The Virtual Library provides information on all items held in the Library, which were published after 1993. The Virtual Library contains information on all items kept in the open stacks as well as high demand items published before 1993. Low demand items published prior to 1993 can be found in the Library’s Digital Cards' Catalogue.
Open stacks. Items marked with green stickers are for borrowing and the rest of the items are for use in the reading rooms only.
- Read wherever you want. You can bring along books and journals from one reading room to the other and read them wherever you want.
- The arrangement of items. The items are arranged according to subjects and sections and within the section according to the alphabet. After finding the item in the Virtual Library, you need to note its call number, for example, 36 Te-56. It means that the item is placed in the section 36 under the letter T. Each section is arranged in the following order: primarily goes items in Lithuanian language (from A to Ž), further goes items in English and Russian alphabets. Depending on the type of the reading room, there can be items in other languages, for example, Arabic, Hindi.
- After you have taken an item from a shelf, do not put it back by yourselves. Please take items you have been using to a trolley standing next to the shelf. Librarians maintain order on the shelves and that help users to find items.
Borrowing
The loan status of an item is indicated in the section “Locations and Requests” of the Virtual Library. Some items are to be read in the reading rooms only, the others have a certain loan period varying from 1 day to 6 months. Loan periods are usually determined by the librarians. Users cannot change them by themselves.
External users can borrow items marked with green stickers as well as fiction books with one-month loan period which are located in the Leisure Reading Room and all items (even those without green stickers) in Czesław Miłosz Reading Room.
If you want to borrow an item, first of all find its call number in the Virtual Library, for example 1/Pl-31.
In accordance with the call number, find the item in the open stacks of the reading rooms located in the Central Library and the SCIC. If the item is in the faculty or centre library, ask the librarian for help.
Items from the faculty or centers' reading rooms can be borrowed with the help of the librarian working in these libraries.
You can borrow the books marked with green stickers at the Central Library and the SCIC using self-service facilities.
If you experience any problems, please contact librarians working in the nearest reading room or at the Information Desk.
VU employees and students can borrow up to 99 items, whereas external users can borrow up to 10 items. Users are allowed to borrow only one copy of the same title.
Publications requests
• Publications from the SCIC storage;
• Publications from CL storage;
• Fiction from The Leisure and Czesław Miłosz reading rooms can be requested only when the requested book is already borrowed so, by placing a request on the borrowed book, user stands in line to borrow the book after it will be returned.
• There is no possibility to request books from open stacks. You can borrow publications from the open stacks (that is publications from the remaining reading rooms) only in person when you come to the library.
What publications can be requested from ŠAIC?
• Only publications with “Loans Desk” as the indicated place of storage can be borrowed for a semester, a month or two weeks.
• Fiction with “Fiction Loans” as the indicated place of storage can be borrowed for a month.
• Registered users can borrow and return books from fiction open stacks of ŠAIC by themselves using a self-service machine. You cannot place a request in advance or extend a loan period for publications from this collection via Internet.
• Books from the other ŠAIC reading rooms (Arts, Periodicals, Šliūpas Archive and Rare Books, Universal reading rooms) are not for borrowing.
• Loan periods of borrowed books can be extended via Internet without any limits as long as borrowed publications are not requested by other users.
How to place a request for a publication?
- Log in to your Virtual Library account.
- Make sure that the publication can be requested: check the publication’s place of storage in the section “Locations” of the Virtual Library.
- If the book meets the criteria, click the button “Send request” and select a pickup location from the provided list.
When and how can you take the requested publications?
• Publications are being fetched from the storage on working days from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Publications are fetched to pickup locations every hour, that is at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m. ect.
• In the pickup locations, on the shelf “Requests from the storage” requested publications are kept for 3 days.
• Requested publications are placed on the shelf according to user card’s number in ascending order. Users will find a request slip in the requested book. They have to indicate until when they want to read the book there.
Returning
Please, return items to the same library where you have borrowed them.
Items from reading rooms of faculties and centres should be handed over to the librarian working in these libraries.
Items borrowed from the SCIC can be returned at any time using self-service facilities installed inside and outside the building. The self-service device is located by the main entrance to the Scholarly Communication and Information Centre. If you want to return items from the outside, place your user card on the square indicated on the glass (watch your user card carefully that it would not slip out of your hand). When the door opens, you should place the borrowed items one at a time.
You can return items with the self-check in device at the Central Library during its working hours. The device is located by the Information Desk on the 1st floor. User card is not necessary. Place the borrowed items one at a time.
Renewing the loan
You can renew only the items with a one-month lending period. It can be done via your personal account in the Virtual Library.
Items with other than one-month lending period ought to be returned on time. These items cannot be renewed.
Fines for overdue items
Fines will be incurred for items that are returned or renewed late:
- 0,03 € per day for one-month or longer lending period
- 0,09 € per day for shorter than one-month lending period
Fines are charged immediately an item is overdue and continues to increase until the item is returned. Fines are calculated only after the overdue items have been returned to the Library. When the fine exceeds five euros, the option to borrow items is automatically blocked. It can be reactivated only when the fine is reduced and does not exceed five euros.
You can check the list of borrowed items, due dates and fines for the overdue items via your personal account in the Virtual Library.
Fines can be paid in all service points of the library.