Getting your library card

All residents of the City of Utica are entitled to a library card.  Your first library card is free; if you lose your card, there is a $3.00 replacement fee.

If your current Driver's License or Michigan I.D. has your current Utica address, you need simply to bring it to the library, fill out an application, and a card will be issued to you on the spot.  If your current address is not on your identification, you should bring two pieces of mail addressed to you.  This should be a utility bill, insurance bill, or other "official mail."  Personal letters will not suffice. 

Children under the age of 18 are considered minors in the State of Michigan.  You are welcome to apply for library cards for your children; however, you will also need to fill out information on their applications, show your driver's license, and sign as responsible for anything they checkout.  Only parents or legal guardians may sign library card applications; grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, etc. do not qualify unless those individuals are legal guardians of the minor child. 

LIbraries in Macomb County require that residents obtain their library cards from their home library.  Your home library is the one supported by your municipality and your tax dollars.  The City of Utica and the Charter Township of Shelby share two zip codes; therefore, your driver's license may say you reside in Utica when actually you reside in Shelby Township, or vice-versa.  The government to which you pay your property taxes is your legal residence.  If you're unsure as to whether you live in Utica or Shelby, please call us at 586-731-4141, and we can tell you if your street address falls in Utica or Shelby.

Upon receiving your card, you are limited to three items for your first checkout.  After those items are returned, we limit DVD checkouts to 10 per card.  There are no limits on any other materials.

In addition, your library card from us gives you access to all the public libraries in Macomb County, plus the Troy Library and the Harper Woods Public Library, because of the Utica Library's membership in the Suburban Library Cooperative.  The online shared catalog will show the holdings of almost twenty libraries whose collections are available to you. 

Lending Policies

• DVDs/Videos check out for one week, with 1 renewal of one week.
• Books and Books on CD check out for three weeks, with 1 renewal of three weeks.
• Magazines check out for one week, with 1 renewal of 1 week.
• Our Kindle checks out for two weeks with no renewal.  You must be a resident of the city of Utica to checkout the Kindle and a deposit of $20.00 is required; the deposit is refunded when the Kindle is returned in good working order.
• New feature film DVDs are rental items, $2.00 for a one week checkout.  These items are non-renewable.  (Of our over 2,000 DVDs, we have about 100 rental DVDs at a time; the rest of our DVDs are free.  Rental DVDs move to the free shelves after 10 months to a year.)

Fines & Fees

Fines on DVDs and Kindles are $1.00 a day.  Fines on all other materials are 25 cents a day.

If materials are not returned within three months of the due date, the items are automatically set to "lost" and the patron is charged the cost of the item plus a $5.00 processing fee.  We encourage patrons who have "lost" items on their library account to call the library immediately and discuss the situation with library staff before additional charges accrue.  After a month, library accounts with a balance of over $25.00 will be forwarded to a collection agency.

Suburban Library Cooperative of Macomb County (SLC)

The Utica Library is a member of the Suburban Library Cooperative, a system of approximately 20 libraries, that have joined together to better serve their patrons.  The majority of these libraries have a shared system library catalog, so when you are searching for material you may limit your search to a particular library or search all the libraries in the shared system.  You may place holds on the materials you need and have those items delivered to the Utica Library for pickup, or you may visit any of those libraries and use your Utica library card to check out materials. 

Please remember however, that these are all separate, independent libraries governed by their individual library boards and not branches of any "main" library; thus, when you visit another library and checkout their materials you may find the lending periods differ and the fines and fees may vary.  This is especially true for AV materials--DVDs, CDs, etc.  You should always check your receipt for due dates.  

Also, the Troy Public Library and the Clinton-Macomb Libraries, while part of our cooperative, are not on the shared catalog.  You are entitled to use your card at both these libraries, but you will need to visit the library, have your Utica library card entered into their system, and then search their catalogs for materials at their individual websites.  For a list of all libraries available to you through SLC, click here.