Consortial Borrowing (PUC)
Number of documents and loan term
Is it possible to choose the institution that sends the book?
Is it possible to use the service with an expired card?
Is it possible to know if I have any sanctions or blocks?
Which institutions are involved?
What documents can be borrowed?
Is it possible to request documents that are not available by PUC?
What if documents are returned late?
Access to participating libraries
What is the difference between the consortium loan service and the interlibrary loan service?
Check out the full regulations
See information on data protection
Description
The PUC is a free consortium loan service that allows BC users to borrow documents from the libraries of Catalan universities.
To use it, it is necessary to have a valid BC reader card and don't have expired loan documents or be blocked by sanctions in the loan service.
Do you want a document that is available at another institution? With the PUC, you can!
Access
There are two ways to access the service:
- Making a reservation via web through the catalogue of the Biblioteca de Catalunya Explora, selecting the CCUC/PUC option.
- Going in person to the library where the documents are located. It will be necessary to identify yourself with the BC card.
How to make the request?
PUC via web
By default, the Explore of the BC retrieves documents from the BC collection. To check if the book you need is available in university libraries, you need to do it as follows:
- Select the CCUC/PUC search scope from the drop-down search box.
- Identify yourself as a BC user with your card barcode and password. If you have never changed it, it will be the DNI with the lowercase letter. If you have changed it and can't remember which one it is, you can restart it here.
- Click the Order by PUC button.
- The form checks the availability of copies and informs you if copies are available to order. If the work has several volumes, here you can choose the one you want.
- Once the request is sent, a confirmation message will be generated automatically indicating that the request has been made correctly.
When the document reaches the BC, you will receive an email. From that date, you'll have four days to pick it up.
In the event that there is no copy that can be served, you will receive a notice of cancellation of the reservation by email.
During the application and loan process, different informative emails are received sent by the library that owns the document. In the case of cancelled requests, emails sent from the BC are received.
→It is important that we have your email updated, to modify it contact carnet@bnc.cat
You can consult the help manual and this infographic
You can also check your requests at: My Account.
PUC in situ
BC users can go personally to any of the CSUC member libraries, identify themselves with their BC card —an essential requirement— and take documents on loan.
Number of documents and loan term
10 documents during 21 calendar days.
The maximum number of documents that can be obtained through the PUC includes those that are requested, those that are borrowed and those that are being returned to the institution where they belong.
If you have exceeded the maximum number of documents, you will not see the "Request by PUC" button.
Is it possible to choose the institution that sends the book?
No, it is an automatic procedure. In any case, the waiting time does not depend on the owner university, it is the same wherever the document comes from.
Is it possible to use the service with an expired card?
No, you need to physically renew it in the BC first: How to get a card
Is it possible to know if I have any sanctions or blocks?
If you have an outstanding overdue loan, you will be blocked.
If you have already returned the document and you are not sure if you still have a penalty, you can look at it in the "My account" section, "Sanctions + notices". Each institution can impose different sanctions, so we recommend clicking on all the universities where you operate.
If you have ordered a book from PUC but when it reaches you are blocked in the institution sending it, we will not be able to lend it to you until the penalty expires.
If it is long or the document is in high demand, it will have to be returned and you will have to ask for it again when the block disappears.
Arrival time
Documents usually arrive within a week. If it takes longer, the document may be loaned to another user and you will not be able to consult it until they return it.
You can contact the BC for more information: pib@bnc.cat
Which institutions are involved?
The participating libraries in the PUC are the UB, the UAB, the UPC, the UPF, the UdG, the UdL, the URV, the UOC, the URL, the UVIC-UCC, the SGBC (only Tecnocampus and the UIC) and the Library of Catalonia.
The libraries of the Network of Municipal Libraries of the Diputació de Barcelona (XBM) or the libraries belonging to the Public Reading System of Catalonia (provincial public libraries and those of municipal ownership) are not included.
What documents can be borrowed?
These documents are available in the CCUC/PUC search engine. Participating institutions may exclude documents for the exclusive use of their members.
In general, copies that in the column specifying the type of loan say "Not loanable", "Not for loan", or "Restricted access room" can NOT be borrowed.
Is it possible to request documents that are not available by PUC?
If the document you need is not available through the PUC, it can be requested through the Interlibrary Loan Service. In this case, the service will not be free and the document must be consulted within the BC. We will inform you in advance of the approximate cost, and if you accept it, we will send the request to the owner library. Each institution has its own regulations, so we cannot guarantee that all ILL requests will be resolved satisfactorily.
Pickup
When the document reaches the BC, you will receive an email. From that date, you'll have four days to pick it up.
The documents are collected and returned to the BC access desk, where the cards are made.
Renovation
You can only do the renewal yourself through "My Account" and before the deadline expires.
As these are external documents, the BC cannot renew directly.
You can renew documents up to a maximum renewal period, which is equivalent to 6 times. Once you are in your activity screen and in the "LOANS" section, select the documents you want to renew and click on the "Renew" or "Renew selected" button. If you don't see the books, make sure you have the owner college selected on the left of the screen.
You can renew your loans as long as:
• No other user has requested the document.
• The renewal is done within the loan term.
• You have not exceeded the maximum renewal period.
• Do not have documents pending return.
• You are not blocked.
If you have problems during the renewal process, you can contact carnet@bnc.cat
Return of documents
Regardless of how you obtained them, you can return them to the BC or to any library of the university to which the document belongs.
What if documents are returned late?
The delay in the return implies the suspension of the loan service of one day for each day of delay and for each document.
If you do not return the documents or return them damaged, you must replace them with copies of the same edition or of similar characteristics proposed by the library (if they are sold out).
Until this is accomplished, the user is temporarily excluded from the loan service.
Access to participating libraries
Both for the on-site loan, as for the consultation of the bibliographic collection, as well as to make use of the facilities, the CSUC university libraries will mutually facilitate access to the correctly accredited users of the other member institutions.
Although access to libraries is usually free, in some circumstances library operating rules may limit this access, such as the use of electronic resources.
Each library establishes these limitations in its operating regulations, and in the case of periods with high demand, these libraries may establish measures that prioritise access to the users of the institution itself.
What is the difference between the consortium loan service and the interlibrary loan service?
| PUC | Interlibrary Loan (ILL) |
| It's free. | Subject to fees. |
| Documents only available at Catalan universities. | Documents from any library. |
| Documents can be taken out from the BC. | Documents cannot be taken out of the BC. |
| The user can request them directly without intermediaries (via web or in situ). | The user must request the documents through the BC Loan Service, he cannot do so directly. |
| You can get originals but not reproductions. | Both originals and reproductions can be obtained. |
Check out the full regulations:
https://confluence.csuc.cat/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=70026182
See information on data protection:
From BC: https://www.bnc.cat/rgpd
From CSUC: https://confluence.csuc.cat/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=121113109
More information:
You may contact with pib@bnc.cat