Available 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Additional Options

Community Borrowing Card Holders (Courtesy)

Community Borrowing Cards are provided at no cost to current members of these groups:

  • Students, staff, and faculty of Big Ten Academic Alliance member institutions
  • Students, staff, and faculty of Beloit College, Madison (Area Technical) College, and Edgewood College
  • Staff and faculty of OCLC reciprocal faculty borrowing member institutions
  • Some Wisconsin private college and university faculty
  • PLATO (Participatory Learning and Teaching Organization) Members
  • Employees of the City of Madison, Dane County, and State of Wisconsin (excludes limited term employees)
  • Wisconsin public school 4K-12 educators and staff
  • Members of native nations located within the United States
  • UW-Madison faculty, staff, or student’s spouse or domestic partner

Members of the public and UW-Madison alumni not affiliated in an above category should apply for a fee-based card. If you have questions, please contact Circulation Support.

Courtesy Community Borrowing Card card holders may borrow UW-Madison materials and have the following library privileges:

  • Access to campus libraries and physical collections
  • Loans of UW-Madison items, up to 999 items. See loan periods below
  • Requests of UW-Madison physical materials to be picked up at the campus library of choice, up to 50 requests
  • Loan renewals
  • On-campus access to databases, full-text electronic materials, and other digital resources
  • On-campus guest wireless access

The following services are NOT available:

  • Off-campus access to UW-Madison licensed electronic resources
  • UW System materials
  • Interlibrary loan or requesting from other institutions
  • Remote Delivery
  • Equipment checkout including but not limited to laptops and cameras

Obtaining a Courtesy Community Borrowing Card

  • Applications for new and renewal cards must be made online at go.wisc.edu/borrowcard. Please select your affiliation category in the online application. Some affiliations have additional verification requirements that are listed in the application.

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