The Hesburgh LibraryThe Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame is just north of the football stadium, about a mile and a half walking distance from the center of the Saint Mary's College campus. The Transpo Sweep bus stops at the library on its regular route.
Once you are at the Hesburgh Library, you will need to use a computer that is labeled as a "Research Workstation." There are Research Workstations in the lower level, near the information desk on the first floor, and on most upper floors of the building.
These computers do not require a login and do not have a time limit, but some of them may require you to stand while using them. If standing to use the computer presents a physical challenge for you, the workstations on the first floor are usually set up to allow you to sit.
While Notre Dame does have a wireless network that is open to non-affiliated users, that network does not have access to the library's licensed electronic resources. You can't use your laptop or mobile device on the guest network to access Notre Dame's databases, electronic journals, or e-books.
Image credit: By Mendaliv - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22434215
The Research Workstations only allow access to library resources, so you can't log in to your email account, use Google Drive or Dropbox, or any other service for storing files in the cloud. However, many databases and journal platforms allow you to email full-text documents to yourself, and those functions should still work. Be sure that what you are sending to yourself is the full text of the document you need, not just a link, because that link won't work from outside the Notre Dame campus.
As of Fall 2023, the Hesburgh Libraries have disabled the USB ports on the research workstations, so saving documents to a USB or flash drive won't work. If the database that you're using won't send the full text via email, ask a staff member at Hesburgh for help. They may be able to work around the security restrictions in order to let you get the full-text content that you need.
Non-affiliated users cannot print at the Hesburgh Library.
The walk-up scanners near the information desk on the first floor are available to all users, and you can send your scanned documents to your email.
Saint Mary's students, faculty, and staff can check out books from Hesburgh Library using your SMC ID card. You get to keep the books for 60 days, and can renew them once for another 60 days. The self-checkout machines do not work with SMC ID cards, but the staff at the checkout desk can check the books out to you.
Notre Dame books must be returned to a Notre Dame library. If you return a Notre Dame book to the Cushwa-Leighton Library, we will send it back to Notre Dame but we can't guarantee that it will get there before the due date.
Beginning in Fall 2019, Hesburgh Library has restricted access after 8:00 p.m. to students, faculty, and staff with Notre Dame ID cards.
However, Saint Mary's community members can enter the building and are welcome in Hesburgh after 8:00! Just call the monitor's desk at (574) 631-6350 and a staff member will come to the door to let you in once you show your Saint Mary's ID card.
It would be really great if the Saint Mary's community could access Notre Dame's electronic resources without being physically on the Notre Dame campus, but unfortunately, the licenses between universities and publishers don't generally allow this kind of access. The reverse situation is also true: Notre Dame users have to come to the Saint Mary's campus to use our electronic resources.
