Masaryk University launched its own unique library e-loan service

While students are not allowed inside the university buildings due to current measures, they are now allowed to electronically borrow about 10,000 books that Masaryk University’s libraries have physical copies of. The university came up with a new service designed exclusively for MU.

During the spring semester, Masaryk University used an e-loan system which depended on blanket agreements with copyright collectives. In fall, the university came up with its own solution based on a legal analysis to provide students with an access to a great amount of study materials without having to wait for any blanket agreements to be made. This solution is unique not only to the country, but also to Europe.

MU students and employees can search for books in the library catalogue using a special filter that locates books which can be borrowed online. Each user can borrow only one book at any given time for a maximum of four hours. However, it is possible to view the entire contents of each publication before borrowing it to avoid unnecessary blocking of books as the number of people that can electronically borrow a given publication at one time is limited to the number of physical copies that the library owns.

Although students are not permitted inside the libraries, they can still pick up physical books from a “walk-up window”. Nevertheless, the new service was launched to allow students and employees to read library books from the comfort of their homes.