University Libraries Circulation Policy: Billing Process

The University Libraries does not issue daily fines for most overdue materials. Equipment, reserves, recalled items do, however, incur daily/hourly fines.

Instead, items that do not incur fines have a grace period during which you can return material after its due date without any penalty. An item's grace period lasts from its due date until the end of the period listed in the 'Account Blocked' column in the table below.

If you do not return an item by the end of its grace period, your account will be blocked and you will be unable to check out or renew materials, including the overdue item. At this point, you can still return the item without incurring any fee and your borrowing privileges will be reinstated.

If an item on your account is not returned before the end of the period listed in the 'Account Billed' column, the University Libraries will assume the material has been lost and we will bill your library account for the cost of the item, along with a non-refundable $20 processing fee.

Finally, if you do not return an item earlier than the day listed in the 'Bill to the Bursar' column your library fines will be transferred to the Bursar's Office and applied to your University Account.

Any unpaid fees on your account will prevent you from checking out new materials or renewing current checkouts.

The intent of this fines policy is to prevent patrons from quickly incurring fees, while still encouraging the prompt return of library materials so that other patrons can access them.

*Tier 1 Equipment includes headphones, speakers, chargers, adapters, cables and usb drives.
**Tier 2 Equipment includes calculators and external DVD writers.

For information about fines and bills for equipment checked out from the Studios Technology Lending Desk (laptops, cameras, A/V equipment, etc) please contact their offices at 540-231-9201 or techlending@vt.edu.