Central Engineering Library - BCI (Biblioteca Centrale di Ingegneria)

The External Loan Service allows users and off-site use of documents held by the library.

Users

• Internal users

v  The loan service is open to all those who, for various reasons, have an institutional relationship with the Politecnico di Torino and are in possession of a working badge. In particular:

v  Students regularly enrolled on courses at the Politecnico (Engineering and Architecture)

v  Teachers/Lecturers

v  Researchers

v  Doctoral students

v  Research assistants

v  Technical-administrative staff

v  To use the service, you must be in possession of a Politecnico di Torino badge with an active magnetic stripe.

• External users

The Library admits external users to the consultation service, subject to deposit of a document.

The library is entitled to admit to borrowing those who, although not in possession of a Politecnico badge, need to use the service for study and/or research purposes in collaboration with Politecnico departments.

They are admitted to the service subject to a written request, on headed notepaper, from the Director of the District with which they collaborate, expressly stating the start and end dates of the collaboration.

Those who have to take the State Examination are considered, since they are graduates and therefore no longer students, on a par with external users.

Service delivery modes

To access the service, it is necessary to be in possession of a Politecnico di Torino badge with an active magnetic stripe (duly issued by the GESD). The badge is a personal document and is not transferable to third parties; any misuse or abuse of the document may result in sanctions by the library.

The loan is personal and the user is held responsible in all respects for any damage caused to the borrowed material and its proper storage, and is also liable in the event of theft or loss.

Upon delivery of the material, the user is required to check the integrity and state of preservation of the document and its attachments and to report any problems to the staff.

It is forbidden to underline, annotate, scribble or in any way damage the documents received on loan.

The documents are on personal loan for study and research purposes: the user is obliged to comply with the applicable copyright regulations.

The pick-up service for books in the warehouse always ends 10 minutes before closing time; the loan or return of picked-up documents must take place no later than closing time.

Duration and number of works on loan

All current library material in the catalogue can be borrowed.

Each individual user may have a maximum of 6 works on loan at the same time:

• - 4 works from the Central Engineering Library BCI (e.g. shelf location/call number “121.356”)  --> loan period14 days
• - 2 EDISU works (e.g. shelf location ...)  --> loan duration35 days

 A receipt is issued at the counter and at the self-service stations at the time of the loan and return process. Users are strongly advised to keep the loan receipt until it is returned, and the return receipt until 30 days after the operation.

A returned document may be borrowed again by the same person only from the second day after its return.

Loaning a copy of the same text just returned is not permitted.

The loan of two or more copies of the same text is not permitted.

Renewal

The user has the possibility to renew the loan at the self-service stations or via the web in the following ways:

• Works of the Central Engineering Library (BCI) --> renewal period: 14 days
• Edisu works --> renewal duration:  35 days

Renewal must be requested (or executed) no later than the last day of the loan term.

The renewal period runs from the moment it is made for a maximum of 28 days in total.

Texts whose loan has already expired cannot have it renewed.

You cannot renew the loan of a text if you have another text whose loan has already expired.

You cannot renew a loan if you are in the exclusion period because of another text returned late.

Renewal by telephone or email is not possible.

See section “How to renew a book loan”

Delays in returns

Failure to return the loan by the due date will result in temporary suspension of the user from the loan and renewal service.

Upon return, the late user will be suspended from the loan and renewal service for a period equal to the number of days of delay (e.g. 30 days of delay means 30 days of suspension).

In the event of a serious delay lasting for a period of six months, the library will apply to the GESD for a career block for the latecomer.

Users with delays are notified and invited to make a return with an e-mail to their institutional e-mail address. This e-mail is automatic and managed by the server, so there is no need to reply to it.

A delay of up to three days is considered minor. In this case, despite the delay, one is allowed to immediately borrow other documents upon return. At the same time, upon return with a slight delay, one has the chance to renew other texts that are still on loan (provided they have not already expired in the meantime).

Damage and loss of works

In the event of loss or damage of a book received on loan or for consultation, the user is obliged to replace the book.

In the event of theft of a book received on loan, the user must submit a copy of the report to the judicial authorities and arrange for the work to be replaced.

A user who is responsible for repeated loss of or damage to works received for consultation or borrowing may be permanently excluded from library services.

Works excluded from the loan

The following works are excluded from the loan:

• Periodicals
•  antique books (marked by shelf location 6/)
•  encyclopaedias
• dictionaries
• the Uni Standards (in hard copy until 2012)
• theses
• doctoral theses
• any work whose circulation restriction is deemed necessary by the library due to special requirements

For dictionaries and encyclopaedias, the exclusion from lending does not apply to older editions that the Library may possess.

Book loans are renewable only once and only if renewals are requested before the expiry date of the loans.

They can be renewed at the BCI loan counter or from our website.

From the main page of our catalogue, log in by clicking on the icon at the top right. Active loans will be displayed. Click on “renew all” to renew them all at once, or click “renew selected” after choosing the loans you want to renew.

The 14-day renewal (or 35 days for EDISU) starts on the day it is requested.

Once authenticated, you can then access your Personal Area. In addition to viewing your loans with the possibility of renewing them, you can access your data, your loan history, bibliographical searches saved in the Electronic Shelf, searches formulated and executed, and search strategies saved for later retrieval.

At the end of the session, you click on “logout” to disconnect: this is always advisable and indispensable if you are operating from a public PC (e.g. from one in the Library).

Loan renewal requests by telephone or email are not accepted.

Engineering master’s degree theses can be consulted, limited to two per week, by reserving them by e-mail at bibli.tesi@polito.it, from 2 p.m. Monday to 2 p.m. Friday), for the week following the request, indicating the shelf location available in our catalogue, and specifying your personal details (surname, first name, matriculation number, telephone number).

The reserved theses will arrive and be available for consultation in the Library starting from the Monday following the request from 2 p.m. until the end of the week. It is possible to renew the consultation of the same theses, for a further week, only once (by requesting it within the previous week at the same times as above). 

Theses are not loanable bibliographic material. Reprography of theses is not permitted (i.e., they cannot be scanned/photographed/photocopied) except for the index and bibliography. 

Since 2018, master's degree theses have been filed in electronic format and can be consulted on line via our Discovery Tool PICO

To use the photocopying service, you need a prepaid card distributed by the Politecnico’s Print Centre.

Photocopies and Copyright (Reprography)

Those who make reproductions are required to avoid interventions that might damage the originals and disrupt the internal order of the conservation units.

The proper consultation and reproduction of books, journals and electronic resources in the Library must be carried out within the limits set by law and by any contracts in place, in compliance with the regulations protecting copyright.

Artistic and literary intellectual property in Italy is based on the copyright system and is regulated by Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941 on the Protection of copyright and other rights related to its exercise, subsequently amended and supplemented (Law no. 248/2000, Legislative Decree no. 68/2003 and Law no. 2/2008).

Respect for copyright and for the cultural product are the direct responsibility of scholars and users according to current legislation.

The current law - without prejudice to the ban on the reproduction of musical scores and sheet music - allows the photocopying of protected works only “for personal use” and up to a maximum of 15%of each volume or issue of a periodical, excluding advertising pages.

Reproduction “for personal use” is that carried out for one’s own purposes of reading, study, consultation and not for commercial use or to make other copies to distribute to others, for a fee or even free of charge. Any use made in competition with the author’s rights of economic use is, however, excluded.

In short:

• Photocopies may be made solely for the purpose of study and research and in lieu of the loan of the material itself or its manual transcription.
• It is possible to photocopy for personal use, within the libraries, up to 15% of the work (not from outside)
• Reproduction must only be from an original owned by the library (copies of copies are prohibited).
• The reproduction of entire volumes is strictly forbidden, except in the case of out-of-catalogue rare works and in any case the reproduction must be from the original in the library.
• It is always and in any case forbidden “to pass these copies on to the public and in general any use in competition with the rights of use due to the author” (Art. 68(3)). It is not possible to preventively prepare copies of volumes, or even chapters of volumes, to be made available to others (other students, friends, etc.), even for a mere reimbursement of expenses.
• The photocopying of magazine articles in printed form may fall within the limits that apply to photocopies of books.

For further information and clarification, please consult the webpage

(http://www.siae.it/UtilizzaOpere.asp?click_level=0600.0300.0300.0500.0700&link_page=olaf_lett_utilizzatori_faq_reprografia.htm)

where precise and detailed answers can be found.

A dissertation (thesis), being of a creative nature, constitutes an original work protected by the law on copyright pursuant to Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941 (in particular, articles 1 and 6). The date of filing, as well as the date of the oral discussion of the work, should leave no doubt as to the originality of the dissertation with respect to any subsequent use of the dissertation, even partial, without the consent of the undergraduate student/author. According to the most recent interpretations of the law, the domain of rights over the thesis belongs to the students who draft and produce the idea (also) of their supervisor in a tangible form, in an original work. The thesis cannot be consulted or used by any interested parties without the consent of the undergraduate/graduate student, holder of the relative copyrights be they moral or financial. These rights remain with the author even if a copy of the text is transferred to the Faculty (in this regard, it must be emphasised that no University regulations can override the contents of the law) or sent to a publishing house because, according to Art. 109(1) of Law 633/1941, “the transfer of one or more copies of the work does not imply, unless otherwise agreed, the transfer of the rights of use”.

Bibliographic references

1. - Law No. 633 of 22 April 1941
2. - Pojaghi, A. - La tesi di laurea, in quanto dotata di carattere creativo, costituisce opera dell’ingegno tutelata dalla legge sul diritto d’autore. - In: Foro Padano, 1995, I, 234
3. - Giacardi, Walter. - Diritto d’autore e tutela della tesi di laurea
4. - De Robbio, Antonella. - Le tesi nel diritto d’autore: un argomento complesso
5. - Tesi e diritto d’autore / edited by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

During all holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.) and during periods when the Library is closed (for holidays, inventories, building work, etc.) the loan of books is automatically extended to the first reopening day of each period for all those who have not yet renewed their loan. The others are always required to make their returns by the date on which the loan renewal expires. Should the renewal of a loan fall on a day when the Library is closed, it too will be automatically extended to the first day of reopening.

Please note that the date on which a book loan expires always falls on a day when the Library is open. However, it is a good idea to check the Library’s opening hours because during holiday periods there may be restrictions on opening hours. Changes in opening hours during holiday and weekday periods are always announced approximately one week in advance.