Billington Library – Right Info at the Right Time

Whether you’re on campus or learning remotely, Billington Library offers many services and resources to help you succeed.

After a recent remodel, most of the library services are now located on Billington’s second floor. The first floor contains a reference desk, the Academic Resource Center (which has free tutoring for languages, math, reading, science, study skills, and writing) and Stacks Café, the new coffee bar. The library has socially distanced computers, and laptops and Chromebooks are available for two-hour checkout. Our shelves are open for browsing, with more than 55,000 books that can be borrowed. 

To access the library’s services while off campus, the best place to start is on the library’s web page.  Have your MyJCCC username, password and JCCC ID card number handy; you will need them to make requests and access articles, ebooks and streaming films from off campus.

Watch the library staff's video on how to request items. Mailed materials generally arrive in three to five days. Materials should be returned to the book drop, located on the east side of Billington Library near the parking lot.

Summon – your source for sources. The Summon search box on the library website works like Google for the library. It searches through everything the library can access, connecting you to almost 600 million books, ebooks, streaming videos and DVDs, and magazine, newspaper and journal articles.

Need an answer? Librarians to the rescue. If you’re on campus, librarians are at the first-floor reference desk Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. But you can ask a librarian a question almost any time on the library website (they’re available 80 hours per week) by online chat, text (913-674-5631) or even X (@JCCCLib). You can also schedule a meeting by Zoom or phone (you’ll need your JCCC username and password).

Check out our textbooks and course reserves. Billington has almost 400 textbooks and course reserves available for you to borrow while you’re on campus. The current list is available by using the course reserve function on the library home page. Use your JCCC ID card to check them out for two hours for use in the library.

If it’s not on the shelf, Interlibrary Loan scans the continent. You can request books, articles and many other kinds of resources from more than 6,700 libraries in North America on the library’s Interlibrary Loan web page. Interlibrary Loan is a free service, with the majority of books arriving within two weeks and articles within two days. Physical material requests may be limited due to COVID-19 closures.

Make a date with a database. Connect with reliable information on more than 190 research databases. You’ll also find numerous professional journals that are accessible to JCCC credit students, faculty and staff.

Much more than books! We have lots of additional resources to help you succeed. Find out more about borrowing a laptop or finding a quiet place to work in one of our study spaces by visiting the Study Spaces and Resources page. If you need to print something, there are printers available on campus through PaperCut. See Printing on Campus for the details.

Our video collection has more than 150,000 streaming videos and 5,000 DVDs. Check out our film guide for current movies, foreign films or documentaries. We also have:

• More than 600 New York Times Bestsellers, including a large young adult and graphic novel collection
• Online newspapers (The Kansas City Star, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc.)
• At least 300 audiobooks, from mystery novels to self-help
• At least 40 leisure magazines that will soon be available for online browsing