How To Use This Site

How do I find books and other materials?
To find a book or other item, click on Search our collection. You can search the entire record by keyword(s) or use Advanced Search to search by author, title, subject or other choices. For help searching, click on Help in the navigation bar.

If you prefer, click on Browse our recommendations or take a look at our Special features for books you might enjoy reading. The books are arranged by subject. Generally, the lists contain only a few of the books in our collection related to these topics. We also have videocassettes available for loan.

Remember that the UW Water Resources Library is an academic library so some titles are technical, but we do have nontechnical materials available on most topics. If you are having difficulty finding material, just Ask a Librarian for help.

How do I request books and other materials?
After copying the call numbers and titles of the books you are interested in, fill in the Request books form and email it to us.

Who can use this service?
Any Wisconsin resident may use the library.

How many items can be requested?
You may request a maximum of five items at a time. We will not loan additional materials until previously borrowed items are returned.  If an item is not available, we will let you know.

What types of items may be requested?
You may request books, documents, pamphlets, videotapes, CD-ROMs, microfiche, journals and maps. We can usually send you an individual issue of a journal if we have it in our collection, but we cannot make copies of journal articles for you. We cannot send oversize, valuable or fragile books or large maps to you.

What is the loan period?
The loan period is four weeks or 28 days.

How do I receive and return materials?

We will send the materials to your local public library through the Wisconsin Libraries Delivery Network.  You simply pick them up and return them at your local library. 

If your local library is not a member of the Delivery Network, we will mail the materials to you free of charge.  You are responsible for mailing them back to us.  It is a good idea to keep the packing materials to reuse when you return the items.

Our mailing address is:

Wisconsin's Water Library
University of Wisconsin
1975 Willow Drive, 2nd Floor
Madison, WI 53706-1177

How long will it take?

If you live within the area served by South Central Library System, the materials should arrive in one to two days. If you live outside the South Central area, it could take up to five days.

What other services does the Water Library provide?
Take a look at our list of Web sites to discover more about selected water-related topics. Read Wisconsin water facts to learn more about this valuable resource. If you are interested in water law and regulation, visit Wisconsin's Water Policies to find out if the State has a policy on a particular water topic and, if so, what it is, where it can be found, and who implements it. And if you have a water-related question or a question about Wisconsin's Water Library, don't hesitate to Ask a Librarian.

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