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Borrowing Basics

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Borrow, place holds, renew, and return your items.

It’s easy and convenient to borrow, place holds, renew, and return your items, either online or in person at any community Library.

A boy and a girl borrowing a library book using a book scanner. People at a library borrowing books using a self checkout machine.

Borrow up to 99 items.

Our collection of nearly 1.4 million items includes books, digital books, audiobooks, DVDs, CDs, magazines, newspapers, and even musical instruments. It’s a good thing you can take out up to 99 items at a time (including up to 30 DVDs and Blu-rays).

Library loans for three weeks.

You can keep books, magazines, CDs, and audiobooks for three weeks, and DVDs and Blu-rays for one week.

A person is at a library desk and is handing a book to a staff member.

Your items automatically renew.

Your items will automatically renew the morning of their due date. If you receive email notifications from the Library, an email will be sent on the due date to let you know whether the auto-renewal was successful. Most items can be renewed up to four times.

You can check the due dates of your items any time by signing into your Library account online. Items may be manually renewed before their due date by signing into your account online or calling 403.262.2928.

Interlibrary loans, items that have already been renewed four times, and items on hold for other patrons cannot be renewed.

Place a hold online.

You can place a hold on an item at another Library location or on an eBook or audiobook by logging into your account. Just find the item in the catalogue and place your hold. You can place up to 50 holds for physical items. Additional holds for eBooks and audiobooks through Libby are managed separately.

Once your hold arrives at your Library it will be available for pick up for seven days. You'll be notified by email or phone that it's ready for pickup. You can change your notification settings online.

Log in to your account to temporarily pause or deactivate your holds. This is useful if you’re going on vacation, for example, so you don't lose your place on the wait list.

Return your items to any Calgary Public Library location.

You can return items to any of our 21 locations using the self check-in machine or return chute. You do not have to return your items to the same Library you borrowed them from.

Every Library, including Central Library, has an external book chute for after-hours returns. The return chutes for Saddletowne Library at the Genesis Centre, Seton Library at Brookfield Residential YMCA, and Rocky Ridge Library at Shane Homes YMCA are available only when the adjoining recreation facilities are open.