Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff, plus affiliates of our partner institutions in the Research Library Association of South Manhattan: use your institutional ID to gain library access and borrow materials.
Search the library's online catalog to identify the call number and location of the items you need, and bring them to the circulation desk to check out.
Library books should be returned to our circulation desk during our open hours; do not return books by leaving them unattended outside the library doors or elsewhere on campus. We also accept returns of regular books from NYU and The New School, and vice versa. Items received via EZBorrow must be returned to the Cooper Union Library.
Loan periods for circulating Main Collection books:
| Cooper Union Staff, Faculty, and Graduate Students | 120 days |
| Cooper Union Undergraduates | 90 days |
| All other borrowers | 90 days |
Some books in our Reserve Collection can be checked out of the library, but only by Cooper Union patrons. For information about the Cooper Union Library's film and video collection, please visit this page. The loan policy for other items will vary by their collection and the user type of the borrower; to view your privileges for a specific item, please sign in to the online catalog.
Once signed in to the online catalog, click the My Library Account menu option to view due dates of all your loans across the Consortium. You can also renew loans which are not overdue or marked as lost. Books received via EZBorrow cannot be renewed beyond their original due date.
It is each patron's responsibility to remain aware of their due dates and to renew items as needed. Email notices about borrowed, overdue, and lost items are regularly generated by our library system, but not receiving such notices does not free the borrower from responsibility for their loans.
Can't find what you're looking for in our collection? You may still be able to get it!
In our online catalog, use the dropdown menu to expand your search to NYU, The New School, and NYSID. If an item is currently available in physical format in a circulating collection at those institutions, it can be requested via the Resource Sharing link in the catalog record. You will be notified of the item's arrival, and can pick it up at the Cooper Union Library circulation desk.
Items that aren't held locally may be available in our larger PALCI network. See our EZBorrow page for information and instructions about requesting physical books through this service.
Electronic delivery is also available for journal articles and limited book chapters. For such requests, please use the Item Request form on our website, even if the item is available within the Consortium.
The Cooper Union Library does not charge late fines for regular circulating material. Reserve Collection items do incur a charge of $1 per hour, but may be waived at the discretion of the library staff. Any material that is lost or returned with new significant damage will be assessed for replacement, with the replacement cost plus a $15 processing fee issued to the borrower.
Failure to return library items or pay fines during your academic tenure may result in a block on your library account. As per Cooper Union's policy on Registration Regulations and Financial Obligations, "No student will be included in the graduating class unless all obligations have been accounted for prior to graduation." If you have any questions, please contact us.
Cooper Union-related fines and fees can be paid in-person or online; please contact us at library@cooper.edu if you would like to receive an invoice via email to pay online. All fines and fees owed to Consortium libraries (i.e. NYU, The New School, and NYSID) must be resolved with those libraries; this includes items requested through the catalog.
