Frequently Asked Questions

January 2021 update: Please do not visit campus to return library materials. Wait until the stay-at-home order is lifted or return items by mail.

Book drops are accessible at both campuses if you need to return your library material (books, films, magazines).

Please follow appropriate procedures regarding campus access: https://portal.cca.edu/working/office-human-resources/workplace-guidelines-during-covid19-closure/campus-access-information/

Checked-out items may be renewed as necessary during the campus closure. We will not charge overdue fines during this period.

Yes, portions of books or journal articles may be scanned from the libraries collections for faculty and students.  Faculty, please use our scanning request form.  Students may email us at librarynotices@cca.edu.

CCA has set up Moodle help in Portal, this should help answer most of your questions.  If you need additional assistance, please submit a ticket to the helpdesk.

Yes. All of the CCA Libraries' online resources are accessible from off-campus. If you click a link, you should be prompted to login with your CCA account to confirm that you're allowed access. This happens automatically if you're using the CCA Libraries Search on the Libraries home page or if you have selected a resource off the Libraries' A-Z List. However, if you go to one of our resources via Google or without using the Libraries' website, it will have no way of knowing you're a CCA student and may ask you to pay money to access articles or media. Just make sure you're using the Libraries' website and you will be OK.

For instance:

wrong => doing a Google search for "JSTOR" and then searching the academic database

right => selecting JSTOR off of the A-Z list and signing in with your CCA username

Books returned during the closure are quarantined for 3 days before they are checked in. We are not charging overdue fines during the campus closures, so you won't be charged.

January 2021 Update: Due to the latest shelter-in-place order, library and media center checkouts and returns may be requested by appointment only. The Libraries will prioritize purchasing ebooks or scanning our physical collections before considering a physical checkout appointment. Requests will be fulfilled only when digitized versions are unavailable or insufficient. Please check https://libraries.cca.edu/​ for latest updates.

 

Yes. Books, videos, and magazines may be placed on hold and picked up during scheduled pickup hours:

Meyer Library (Oakland): Wednesday, 11am-1pm

Simpson Library (San Francisco): Thursday, 11am-1pm

Holds may take up to a week to become available as staff availability and inter-office mail are limited. Once available, items will be held for 14 days. Complete instructions for placing and picking up holds may be found here: https://libraries.cca.edu/services/circulation-services/remote-services/contactless-library-checkout/

 

The library is happy to attempt to obtain materials from other academic libraries. Because of library closures due to COVID-19, we are processing only requests that may be filled electronically. This may also be limited due to the closures of loaning libraries. To place an Inter-Library Loan request, please use the form on our website: https://libraries.cca.edu/services/circulation-services/inter-library-loan/

You may hold on to your items until campus reopens, or return items by mail. We will not be charging overdue fees during the campus closure. If returning by mail, please send packages to:

CCA Libraries

1111 8th St.

San Francisco, CA 94107

Book drops are available at both campus libraries if you are able to return any library materials. View access information here: http://portal.cca.edu/working/office-human-resources/workplace-guidelines-during-covid19-closure/campus-access-information/. Please feel free to contact the Libraries should you have any questions or concerns about your items.

In general, you should not pay for academic articles for your research. A few things could be going on:

We have access to the article at CCA, you just accessed it by going outside the Libraries' website. You could paste a citation or the article's title into our search engine to try to find it.

Even if CCA doesn't own access to the article, there may be free versions available online. Again, searching for the citation could help you find it. You can also try using the Unpaywall browser extension which tries to link academic articles to free copies.

Finally, if neither of those methods work, you can try to inter-library loan the article. We will reach out to other institutions to try to obtain access to it. Note that this can take some time, typically a couple weeks, so it is not convenient for research that you need right now.

CCA has set up a Teaching Lab in Portal with information on workshops, tutorials, resources, and more. If you need additional assistance, please submit a ticket to the Help Desk.

 

CCA's ETS team is maintaining help pages on Portal, which cover Zoom basics and should answer most of your questions.  If you still need help, submit a helpdesk ticket, and someone from the team will be in touch.

If you use the search box on the Libraries' home page, it'll take you to our search engine which offers a "content type" filter which you can use to refine your search. So first perform your search, using a general topic or the title of the specific work you're looking for, then use the Content Type filter to limit to the kind of media you want. In this example, you can see that "Journal Article" has been selected but there are options for newspapers, books, etc. If you select More... there will be further options, like image, art work, or video.

Portions of films on DVD or other media may be shared with students via Zoom screensharing within a class session.  Asking students to purchase streaming access to widely available films is also an option.

No. We will not be charging overdue fees during the campus closure. Book drops are available at both campus libraries should you need to return library material, but if you are outside the Bay Area, we will extend due dates until you can return your items.

In some circumstances, copyright law would allow us to make digital copies for use in Moodle courses.  Whenever possible, we would purchase streaming access to the film through Kanopy or other streaming services.  Portions of films on DVD or other media may also be shared with students via Zoom screensharing within a class session.  If you need access to a film, please use our digitization request form.