Access and Service Policies

1. Categories of Library Users: Primary Clientele, Secondary Clientele, Academic Colleagues, & Visitors

A.A. Lemieux Library is a limited access facility whose mission is to support the curricular, informational, and scholarship needs of the students, faculty, and staff of Seattle University. They constitute our Primary Clientele in all matters of access and service. The Library has only a limited responsibility to serve individuals or groups not formally engaged in Seattle University’s academic and educational programs. Our Secondary Clientele includes the students, faculty, or staff of other schools, colleges, universities, and organizations with whom Seattle University or Lemieux Library maintains formal reciprocal relationships. These are the members of the following groups: The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, The Northwest Association of Private Colleges and Universities, and the Orbis Cascade Alliance. We also provide limited access and services to Academic Colleagues -- faculty and students from other academic institutions, or independent researchers, who find portions of our collection useful while they are away from their home institutions. We permit limited access to the facility to Visitors, individuals who are not members of these other groups but who express a legitimate need for short-term access to specific information that isn’t normally provided by a public library.

2. Access to the Building

All current members of the Seattle University community, our Primary Clientele, have access to all public areas of the building during regular business hours and to the First Floor meeting and study areas after the library has closed. The Seattle University campus is private property and Lemieux Library is not a public library. (The nearest public library is the main branch of the Seattle Public Library, located at 4th & Madison.) Secondary Clientele, Academic Colleagues, and Visitors have access only to the public areas of the Library’s Second, Third, and Fourth Floors during regular business hours, and are not authorized to use meeting and study areas on the First Floor. While on the premises, Secondary Clientele, Academic Colleagues, and Visitors are expected to abide by the library’s Expectations of Library Users and to conduct their library business in a prompt and timely fashion. Those who anticipate the need for extended time in the library building (more than one day) must introduce themselves to and request permission, in advance, from the Director of Instructional & Public Services or the University Librarian.

3. Access to Collections & Services

All current members of the Seattle University community, our Primary Clientele, have full library privileges for collections and services during regular business hours and as delineated in library policy and procedure documents, in print and on this website. Secondary Clientele, Academic Colleagues, and Visitors are permitted to examine open-stack library resources on the premises and to use the self-service copy machines. The library restricts access to the collections and to services from library staff based on our priority given to the SU community, on licensing agreements with our vendors, on the availability of staff, and on the nature of a user’s information needs.All library materials on open-stack shelving – including circulating books, periodicals, newspapers, and the Reference Collection – and the library’s media collection are available for on-site use by Secondary Clientele, Academic Colleagues, and Visitors.

• The Reserve Collection is available only to immediate members of the S.U. community, under terms established by the faculty who place these materials on Reserve for specific classes.
• Special Collections, Archival, and Manuscript material is available to all categories of library users only by appointment after written application to, and approval by, the Coordinator of Collection Development or the Office of the University Librarian.
• In adherence to university policy on computer usage and to the library’s licensing agreements for electronic resources, the library’s public-access computers are available only to authorized members of the immediate SU community, our Primary Clientele. A limited number of online-catalog-only computers are available to all categories of users in order to consult the library’s cataloged holdings.

Thank you for recognizing the important distinctions we must make among our various clientele and visitors, and for abiding by our policies.