Especially for Community Members

Can you check out items from Polk Library?

Yes! You can check out:

• Books from the Main Collection, EMC and Government Documents - 28 days, renewable
• Books from the Browsing Room (current popular reading materials are in this room) - 28 days, renewable

You may have in-library use of:

• Library databases, with some exceptions
• VHS videotapes
• Reference books
• Periodicals (magazines)

For more details on loan periods, see the Circulation Department website

What do you need to do to be able to check things out?

Get a NEWEra Guest Card. Come to the Polk Library Circulation Desk (1st floor North), fill out an application form and present a valid Wisconsin identification card, such as a driver's license. You will get the card immediately and be able to use it immediately.

There is no charge for the NEWEra Card, and it is valid at 12 public college and university libraries. See the NEWEra site for more information

You might also be interested in:

• The Archives & Area Research Center (3rd floor South) - This area of Polk Library has birth, death, marriage, naturalization and many more geneaology-related documents.
• Government Documents (3rd floor South) - Polk Library is a partial Government Documents repository, a depository for State of Wisconsin documents and selected government documents from all fifty states.
• Campus Map - Get an overview of our location on campus. We are located at 801 Elmwood Ave. The entrance is on the west side of the building. Parking for non-campus users is available on the streets surrounding campus.
• BadgerLink - Any Wisconsin resident can get access to articles from newspapers and magazines. Through EBSCO, users can search over 6,000 magazine and journal titles, over half of which are available in full-text. ProQuest provides access to a dozen Wisconsin newspapers in addition to over 500 regional, national and international publications.
• UW Digital Collections - Collections digitized by UW libraries are accessible to everyone. Collections include the Wisconsin Pioneer Experience, the Ecology and Natural Resources Collection & more.

Why can't you have access to our library databases and search tools off campus?

Our license agreements with vendors such as Ebsco, Lexis Nexis, and many others prevent us from offering off-campus access to our databases to non-UW Oshkosh faculty, staff and students. We do offer use of our databases in the library. We have several computers in the reference area that can give you access to a broad range of our electronic resources. Also, see BadgerLink above for access to several databases that are free to all Wisconsin residents.