Borrowing at Hekman
Hekman Library has nearly one million books split almost evenly between physical print volumes and ebooks.
Distance seminary students have access to all of Hekman Library's digital resources. It is best to always start your research through the library's website to ensure that you have proper access by using your seminary library credentials.
Residential seminary students can borrow anything from Hekman's physical collection using their Seminary student ID card (except for items from a few special collections, such as Reference and Rare Books). You will receive an email from the library when your items are due soon, as a reminder, but remember that you can also log in to your library account any time to check your due dates and renew items. Most books can be renewed multiple times, unless they have been requested by another patron.
For more info and policies, see the library's Borrowing page.
Searching How-to Videos
Watch this video to get started with our main discovery tool, Primo!
Follow up with this video if you want to try some more advanced Primo tools
Tips for Searching in Hekman Library:
- Use Primo to search for any type of resource - the big search box on the home page looks through our print and online collections together, which makes it a great tool for interdisciplinary research or multi-source needs
- In Primo, you have filters to limit your search in many ways, such as Resource Type, Date, etc. You can also choose Advanced Search to change between searching by keyword, by author, by title, and more.
- The results pages in Primo display snapshots of information for all kinds of materials, including important details like where to View It (ont the shelf or link to full text online).
- Do you prefer the traditional catalog search? You can use that option in the buttons below the Primo search on the home page. Do you want to choose a specific database to search? You can see our full list of individual databases also below the Primo search on the homepage.
- If you're not sure when a book you've checked out is due, you can go to your account to see the full list of everything you have checked out and when it is due. You can also renew these items online by checking them and clicking "Renew"
- Remember, in order to place holds or renew items, as well as access e-books and other electronic resources from off-campus, you must sign into the library with your Populi credentials.
Looking for ebooks?
Follow these instructions to find ebooks through the library's Primo discovery tool, or ask a librarian for more help anytime.
- Atla E-Book Lending Program
The Atla E-Book Lending Program is a collection of theological ebooks users can borrow like a print book. Unlike many ebook platforms, Atla ELP ebooks are limited to one user at a time. Before searching the collection, make sure to login in the upper righthand corner. Select Calvin University from the dropdown menu if you are a university student or faculty, and login using your full email address and Calvin passphrase. Select Calvin Seminary if you are a seminary student or faculty, and login using your entire library card number as both the login and password.
Not Finding What You're Looking For?
Even if Hekman Library doesn't own a particular book or article that you need, you can borrow or get a copy from another library through our MeL and ILL sharing services. Just use the links below to search outside of Hekman's holdings and make requests - if you have any questions or problems, the librarians are always available to help!
- Michigan eLibrary (MeL)
If you are using Search Start in the Hekman homepage, you'll find a tab to search other libraries in Michigan through MeL; also, use this link to get to their search page
