Loan

The library's space and collections are accessible to everyone, without restriction, during our opening hours. However, in order to borrow documents and have access to certain services, you must register.

Even if you are a member of the HEIA-FR community (student, teacher, researcher, employee) you are not automatically registered with the library. 

You can register at any time, free of charge, online using your SWITCH edu-ID login.

Like registration, the use of the library and its resources is free for the entire HES-SO Fribourg community. Only overdue or unreturned books will be charged. 

Please note that the cost of ordering documents from another library is also covered by the library.

You can borrow up to 100 documents at a time.

The HEIA-FR library's printed collection has 3 loan periods:
• Books and comics: 28 days
• DVDs: 14 days
• Magazines: 7 days 

With the exception of magazines, documents are automatically renewed 5 times. When a document is reserved by another user or when the maximum loan period has been reached, an e-mail is sent to you and you must return the document.

If the documents are overdue, the conditions are as follows:
• Warning: 1 day after expiry of loan, free of charge
• 1st reminder: 7 days after expiry of loan, CHF 5.00 per document
• 2nd reminder: 14 days after expiry of loan, CHF 5.00 per document
• 3rd reminder: 21 days after expiry of loan, CHF 10.00 per document

Please note: late fees are cumulative and after the 3rd reminder, your reader account is automatically blocked. You will not be able to borrow any more documents until your situation has been regularised with the library.

Go to the swisscovery|HES-SO discovery tool, where you can search by keyword, title, author or ISBN. 

You can use the filters under the search bar to specify the type of document you are looking for:

Once you have completed your search, you can also use the filters on the left of the page to search for books by various criteria, for example by library. To find books from our library, select HEIA (Fribourg) in the ‘HES-SO’ filter:

Is your search not giving any satisfactory results?

Don't panic! Here are a few tips to optimise your search results:

• Extend your search to swisscovery plus to access the collections of the 500 swisscovery libraries and those of the Renouvaud network.

• Try other terms to describe your subject or search with fewer words, with generic words or in other languages. 

There may be few or no published documents on your subject. In this case, try a new search in the library's electronic resources.

If the book you need is in our collection, you can collect it directly from the library during our opening hours.

To do this, search for the document you want in swisscovery|HES-SO, click on the title to make sure it is available and get the call number of the document:

You can also request it via "Pick up on-site" section by selecting "HEIA (Fribourg)" as the desired collection point.

This option guarantees that the document is set aside for you. You have 10 working days to collect the document from the library. It will be put back on the shelves or sent back to the owning library after this period.

Please note: if our copy is unavailable, scroll down the page of the document on swisscovery and make your request in the "Further request options" section. The procedure to follow is described in the following section "What should I do if the HEIA-FR library doesn't have the document I need ?".

If the book you need is not available from us, but it may be available from one of our partner libraries.

In this example, the book is available from the HEPIA library. Simply check that the pick-up location is "HEIA (Fribourg)" and click on "Request". Please allow approximately 3 working days for the document to be received. You will get an e-mail notification when the document is ready to be picked up.

Once you have received this notification, you have 10 working days to collect the document from the library. After this period, the document will be returned to the owning library.

The fee of CHF 8.00 that appears when the additional request option is selected is paid by the library for all persons affiliated to the HES-SO FR.

You log in to your account from the swisscovery|HES-SO homepage, by clicking on "Sign in/Register" in the top right-hand corner. Use your SWITCH edu-ID informations to sign in. You will then be redirected to the catalogue, and your name will appear in the top right-hand corner. To change your personal details, view the status of your document requests or extend your loans, click on your name and then select the relevant option.

Please also note that the personal data (names, addresses, telephone numbers) in your SWITCH edu-ID account are imported into the swisscovery search portal. You must therefore ensure that this data is up to date.

Under the "My loans" tab, you will find all the information relating to your current loans (due date, late fees, renewals).

Note that borrowed documents are generally loaned for 28 days and automatically renewed up to five times, unless they are requested by another person. The maximum renewal date corresponds to the final expiry date of a loan (including all possible renewals).

Your loan has expired but you still need the document?

- If the borrowed document belongs to the HEIA-FR library: contact us

- If the document comes from another library: You must return the document to us. We advise you to make a new request as soon as you receive the e-mail informing you that you must return the document. This will allow you to return and pick up a copy of the same document at the same time. 

To return documents borrowed from the HEIA-FR library or from another library in the Swisscovery national network, simply go to the loan desk during our opening hours. 

A return box is available outside the library if you wish to return documents out of our opening hours.