There are a few ways to get items from the library if they aren’t available right away. What you can do is place a hold. To place a hold on a library item, you can do it online through the catalog or give us a call at the reference desk at 914-834-2281. To login to our catalog, start with going to our website, www.larchmontlibrary.org. There is a “catalog & your account” icon to click right on the front page. There is a “sign in” button you can click on the upper right next to the “hamburger menu” which looks like three horizontal lines.
You will need your library card number and your pin. Your pin is the last 4 digits of the phone number you used when signing up for your library card. Once logged in, you will be able to see a summary of your account. You will see your checked out items, overdue items, on hold items, and ready to pick up items here. There is also a menu to the left that has more information about your account such as fines, recommended titles, and reading history. If you want to keep track of your check out history, once logged in, you can click on “Start Recording My Reading History” under your account settings.
When you place a hold on an item, it can come from any of the other 37 libraries in the Westchester Library System. Sometimes when an item has a lot of holds, the good thing is Larchmont Library copies go to Larchmont Library patrons first. Items we get from other libraries will be put on the Holds Shelf under your last name. We keep them on the shelf for 7 days.
Another type of hold you can place is called an Interlibrary Loan or ILL. Interlibrary Loans are items patrons can borrow from outside the Westchester Library System. Even though the Westchester Library System has thousands of items, we don’t have every single book ever created. If there is something you are looking for that isn’t in the catalog, you can give us the reference desk a call or fill out the ILL form on our website. These items are a little bit different as patrons will be called personally to pick up these items, they can be found behind the information desk, you have to return these to only Larchmont Library, and renewals aren’t available. There is also a higher late fee fine of $2.00 per day.
Twice a day librarians generate a list of holds from patrons all across Westchester who have reserved items that we have in our library. In the morning, we make sure to grab the holds that are going directly to Larchmont patrons first. We do this to ensure that our patrons will get the items as soon as possible. Sometimes when other libraries pull their holds, they might grab one that is for a Larchmont patron before we do. This means it has to be sent here and will take longer for the patron to get the item. We don’t want that. We want our patrons to get their items fast.