The Hogwarts Library System

Here in the Hogwarts Library, we want to support the education of young witches and wizards the best we can. This means that, like any library, students can borrow certain books from our collection. Not every book is imbued with magical traits- a lot of our books are very similar to what would be found in a Muggle library- minus the subject matter. However, in recent years, due to new laws being passed in the Muggle Liaison Office at the Ministry of Magic, we’ve had the ability to order a small collection of popular Muggle books for the reading enjoyment of Hogwarts students. These can also be utilized by students currently enrolled in the Muggle Studies course at Hogwarts. All books in the general collection can be borrowed for a time period of two weeks. Books located in the restricted section can be accessed during library hours only by students in fifth year and higher- and the books cannot be removed from the library without written and signed permission from the Head of their House.

In the Muggle world, a lack of tracking and retrieval Charms means that many library books can disappear forever due to 'permanent borrowing'; we avoid this because Hogwarts library books automatically disappear from the patron's possession when the allotted borrowing time runs up.

Unfortunately, there have been several notable instances of first-years that were not made aware of this charm that come to my desk in tears over “lost” books that are in fact, safe and intact back on the shelf. Every year I need to re-explain these library policies to misinformed little kids because there is no way any student is coming up to Madam Pince about a missing book, even if you paid them in galleons. The fear of death or loss of limb is too great.

- One of my personal favorite reading spots -

Our books are classified following the Wizarding Standard Decimal system, very similar to the muggle “Dewey” system but with different categories for magical subjects. They are sorted quite logically on our shelves for ease of use.

I’m often in the stacks, and although there are spells for shelving books (and I do use them for the higher shelves) I sometimes enjoy manually shelving books as a way to have something to do with my hands. Doing everything with magic saves a lot of time, and with all that extra time I end up bored with nothing to do but deal with petty conflicts among students. Scaring off troublemakers is Madam Pince’s forte anyways, and I’m always happy to sit back and watch her throw students out of the library.

We also have a hold system for popular books, copies of textbooks for two-hour loan periods, and even a special interlibrary loan system in place. It’s not often used by students, and the Hogwarts library is so vast with books on almost anything, it’s exceedingly rare a student would ever come up empty after looking through our collection. Last time we had to order something from outside Hogwarts, it was a rare book on bewitchment for the Headmistress McGonagall. Other than that, we don’t exactly advertise that option to students, although I’m sure if they asked we could help them out.

One of the lovely Madam Pince’s favorite activities is checking recently returned books for damages. She particularly enjoys doing this right in front of the student who just returned it, pausing between actions to shoot piercing glances at them and cluck reproachfully at any specks of dust or dog-eared pages. Of course, we need to do this, but I don’t know if embarrassing students is entirely necessary. But I don’t mention it to Madam Pince, why deprive the old woman of one of her most beloved pastimes?

Finally, although we don’t do it often, we sometimes weed through the collection to maybe remove some books that aren’t needed by students. This is very rare, as almost every book is useful to someone, but old editions of textbooks and outdated texts turn up and need to be weeded out. We’re always bringing in new material to keep our collection as number one in wizarding libraries.

Well, that’s a general rundown of the circulation techniques in our Hogwarts library. I hope this post has shed some light on the systems we use and the way we provide service to the new generation of witches and wizards. 

Until next time, dear readers!