Loan Periods & Limits

You can have as many as 25 total items out on a card at a time. Most items can be renewed up to two times provided that no one else has requested them. Items borrowed from other Central Dakota Library Network libraries are subject to the lending rules of the libraries from which they came.
Item Loan Period Amount per card
Books 30 days 25
Audiobooks, CDs 30 days 5
Children's life vests, fishing poles 14 days 5
Children's holiday books, high
 demand items*
 14 days 25
DVDs, Magazines 7 days 5
State Park Passes 7 days 1
Video games 7 days 1
Express shelf books** 14 days 5
Express shelf DVDs** 3 days 5
Binge Boxes, Video game systems** 14 days 1
Book club kits 60 days 1
Art prints 60 days 3
Overhead projector, slide projector,
8mm projector, multimedia projector
 24 hours 1
Board games 7 days 2
Interlibrary Loans Varies depending on the
lending institution
 5
*High demand items include any items having four or more requests.
**These items can neither be requested nor renewed.

Lost and Damaged Items

You will be charged for the cost of any items that are not returned to us, or are returned damaged. If items are not paid for promptly, a Long Overdue Material letter will be sent every two months to all patrons owing $50.00 or more for any charges. Patrons who don’t respond within fourteen days may be turned over to a collection agency. Any act of good faith is accepted, and the account will not be turned over in that case.

Notifications

If you have overdue items or items on hold for you, you can choose to receive overdue notices via standard mail or email. If you receive notices via email, you will also receive reminder notices for items that are coming due soon. You can also choose to add text message notifications in addition to your regular mail or email notices. Contact us if you would like to change the way you receive notices or if your contact information changes.

We strive to be careful in checking in all items that are returned to us, however mistakes can occasionally happen. If you think you have returned an item, but you continue to receive overdue notifications for it, please contact us to claim it returned. We will check our shelves to see if we missed checking it in. If the item is not found, we will renew the item (insofar as it can be renewed) for you and you will have until the end of our billing cycle to return it before a replacement charge is applied to your record.

How to pay


By phone:


If you owe at least $2.50 in fees, call the Circulation Department at 701-355-1480 during the library’s operating hours. Have your library barcode number and credit or debit card ready.

By mail:


Send a check, payable to:

Bismarck Public Library
Circulation Department
515 N 5th St.
Bismarck, ND 58501

In person:

Visit the library’s main checkout desk. Cash, check, Visa or Mastercard are accepted (you must have at least $2.50 in fines to be able to pay with credit or debit).

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding your account.