User Records: General Information About IDs

• Student IDs are issued at the Commodore Card Office. Cards are re-validated each semester the student is enrolled. Records loaded July 1-September 9 expire December 31. Records loaded September 10-November 30 expire March 31. Records loaded December 1-June 30 expire October 31.
• Post-Doctoral Scholars have records valid for the period of their appointment. For the university side only, post-doctoral scholars have an HR status of staff but their library privileges are faculty. Records are automatically received and loaded into Library Catalog and loaded with a profile of faculty. If the record is not loaded through HR, create a record according to their appointment letter.
• Faculty IDs are valid for the period of employment with an expiration date of NEVER. Cards are issued at the Commodore Card office or the Medical Center Card office, depending on place of employment. Library Catalog records for faculty are automatically loaded into Workflows.
• Surrogate ID. This user profile was designed to assist faculty when they want someone to check out books for them. These cards are issued at circulation desks and the professor who requests surrogate privileges must fill out a form stating they will be responsible for the material checked out on the ID. The expiration date is one year from issue with the option of yearly renewals. The surrogate USER ID is the six digit number affixed to the back of the surrogate card and the PIN is the first four digits of that number.
• University Staff IDs are valid for the period of employment with an expiration date of NEVER and are issued at the Commodore Card Office.
• Medical Center Staff IDs are issued by the Medical Center Card Office and records should be automatically loaded into WorkFlows. If not, they are created by the Eskind Biomedical Library.
• Vanderbilt Temporary Services (VTS) staff have access privileges only.

Individual libraries may grant borrowing privileges for their specific library to a variety of patron groups. See the chart for system-wide courtesy access and borrowing cards.

• Cross-registered students receive Vanderbilt ID cards and should be included in the daily feed.
• Alumni IDs for the University and the Medical Center are valid for the period of one year and have an expiration date of one year from issue. Starting with the class of 2010, students will keep their VUNetIDs. Before the class of 2010, alumni will be issued an ALT_ID to log in to Library Catalog. Alumni VUnetIDs and ALT_IDs grant remote login to select library databases.
• Faculty from RLAC institutions are granted courtesy borrowing. Faculty members of other research universities that are ARL (Association of Research Libraries) members should contact Pat Johnson (322-3478) to apply for borrowing privileges. To borrow materials, the visiting faculty member must present the Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card (obtained at their home library prior to visit). For a list of participating RLAC institutions see this list.
• Spouse/Partner IDs and Dependent IDs are valid for the period of one year and have an expiration date of one year from issue. Cards are issued at the Vanderbilt Card Office or the Medical Center Card Office depending on place of spouse/partner’s employment. Cards are labeled "Family". Spouses/partners have courtesy borrowing; dependents have access only. The faculty, staff or student must accompany their family member and show ID in order to create the spouse/partner or dependent ID card. The Card Office does not issue spouse/partner or dependent cards for family members of retirees.
• Students and faculty affiliated with other universities may ask their university librarian to write to Vanderbilt’s Dean of University Libraries in order to request borrowing privileges. That request may be mailed or faxed to: Jody Combs, Interim Dean, University Libraries, 419 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37240, 615-343-9832 (fax). Please instruct the student/faculty member that any letter to the Dean should include a CC to Pat Johnson and Sara Pitts. The Dean’s office will notify Pat and Sara of the status of the request, and they will work with the patron to obtain a card and enter an Library Catalog record.