How do I get a library card?
Library cards are free for all Custer County residents, including seasonals. Bring a photo ID and proof of Custer County residency to the library. Samples of proof of residency include: a driver’s license, a utility bill, a rental agreement, a personal check, a check stub showing rent deduction, or a letter from your employer, landlord, or relative you are living with. Children under 18 will need a parent/guardian signature. Non-Custer County residents may purchase a membership for $35/year for family.
What are your loan rules?
You may check out up to 20 items on your library card. If you are over 18, up to four of the items may be videos. If you are under 18, up to two items may be videos. We no longer charge late fees, but we accept voluntary donations when returning overdue items. Replacement fees (based on the cost of an item) will be charged to your account for any lost or damaged materials. The following chart shows the loan period and renewal options:
| Books/Audiobooks Loan Period – 3 weeks May renew 1 time if not reserved |
Videos Loan Period – 1 week May renew 1 time if not reserved |
| Magazines Loan Period – 1 week May renew 1 time if not reserved |
Unrestricted Reference/Pamphlets Loan Period – 1 week May renew 1 time if not reserved |
How do I manage my library account?
You can access your library account online to view your current checkouts, renew items, reserve items, and make purchase suggestions. Simply visit our Catalog (custer.blackshills.bywatersolutions.com) and log in with your 4-digit library number (preceded by HP at Hermosa) and your last name in lowercase letters.amily.
How do I reserve an item from the library?
Open instructions with screen shots
1. Log into your account with your 4-digit library card number in the “Barcode” field (preceded by HP for Hermosa patrons) and your last name in lowercase letters in the “Password” Field.
2. Enter your search terms in the search field and click “Go.”
3. If the item shows in the results, click on “Place hold.” If the item is not in the search results, see “How do I request an interlibrary loan in the Black Hills Library Consortium?”
4. Click on “Show more options.”
5. Click on “A specific item” and “Confirm hold.” Congratulations! You’ve reserved an item from our library. If it is available on the shelves, we will have it ready for you. If it is checked out, you have just placed a “hold” on it.
How do I find and request an item through my library?
These instructions will teach you how to reserve/request items from our library, the Black Hills Library Consortium, all South Dakota libraries, and libraries across the nation.
Open instructions with screen shots
1. Visit our online catalog at http://custer.blackhills.bywatersolutions.com/. Log into your account with your 4-digit library card number in the “Barcode” field (preceded by HP for Hermosa patrons) and your last name in lowercase letters in the “Password” Field.
2. Enter your search terms in the search field and click “Go.” If you are a Hermosa patron change the drop down menu to say “Hermosa.”
3. If the item shows in the results, click on “Place hold.” If the item is not in the search results, see step 6.
4. Click on “Show more options.”
5. Click on “A specific item” and “Confirm hold.” (If you are a Hermosa patron select the Hermosa copy before “Confirm hold.”) Congratulations! You’ve reserved an item from your library. If it is available on the shelves, we will have it ready for you. If it is checked out, you have just placed a “hold” on it.
6. If the Custer library does not have the item you are looking for, change the dropdown menu to “All libraries” and click “Go.”
7. If you find the item, click on “Place a hold.” If your item is not in the results, see step 9.
8. Click on “Confirm hold.” Congratulations! You have requested the item. The library will contact you when it is ready. Please be patient as we pick up these items when we make trips to Rapid City.
9. If you cannot find an item within the Black Hills Library Consortium, you can request an interlibrary loan through SD Share-It. From the catalog, click on the “SD Share-It” tab. Note: Share-It requests must be for materials older than 6 months old. To submit a new purchase suggestion, fill out the form found at
http://custer.blackhills.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-suggestions.pl?op=add
10. Click on “Login” in the upper right corner. Choose “Custer County Library” from the dropdown menu, then enter your library card number (preceded by HP for Hermosa) and last name (lowercase) in the appropriate fields. Then click “Submit.”
11. Enter your search term. If the item shows owning libraries, click on “Request This Item.” If you’re item does not appear, see step 13.
12. Click on “Submit.” Congratulations! You have requested an interlibrary loan from a South Dakota library.
13. If you do not find the item you are looking for, click on “Blank ILL Request.”
14. Enter all of the information you can provide about what you are looking for, then click “Submit.” Congratulations! You’ve submitted a request to search libraries across the nation! We will contact you if/when your item arrives.
If I can’t find an item in my library, how do I request an interlibrary loan in the Black Hills Library Consortium?
Open instructions with screen shots
1. If the Custer library does not have the item you are looking for, change the dropdown menu to “All libraries” and click “Go.”
2. If you find the item, click on “Place a hold.” If you have not already logged in, you will need to log in with your 4-digit library card number in the “Barcode” field (preceded by HP for Hermosa patrons) and your last name in lowercase letters in the “Password” Field. If your item is not in the results, see “How do I Request an interlibrary loan through SD Share-It?”
3. Click on “Confirm hold.” Congratulations! You have requested the item. The library will contact you when it is ready.
How do I checkout and download e-books and audio-books to my smartphone or tablet?
You can download the Libby app to your device and search for the Custer County Library, a member of the Black Hills Library Consortium. After adding our library to the app, you may sign in with your library card. Select the Custer County Library from the dropdown menu, enter your 4-digit library card number (preceded by HP for Hermosa), and enter your last name in lower-case letters for the PIN. You can now browse, check-out, and download available items. If you need help with any part of this process, please call the library at 605-673-4803, and we can either guide you over the phone or you can request to “Book-a-Librarian.” We would be glad to help you.
How do I conduct an advanced search?
These instructions will teach you how to use the Advanced Search option in order to narrow down search results to more efficiently find the materials you need.
Open instructions with screen shots
1. Visit our online catalog at http://custer.blackhills.bywatersolutions.com/. Log into your account with your 4-digit library card number in the “Barcode” field (preceded by HP for Hermosa patrons) and your last name in lowercase letters in the “Password” Field.
2. Click on the “Advanced Search option below the search field.
3. Enter your search terms in the search fields. The search field defaults to a keyword search, but you can change to other options in the drop down menu, such as title, subject, author, series, etc… These are handy to narrow down the search if you already know what you are looking for. For example, if you wanted to see everything in the library that related to Mark Twain at all, you could leave “Keyword” in the field. If you wanted to find books about Mark Twain, you would change the dropdown menu to “subject.” If you wanted to find books written by Mark Twain, you could change the dropdown menu to “author.”
4. Use the “Item Type” tab to narrow down the type of material you are interested in. For example, if you are only interested in books, check “Books.” Note: If you are interested in materials in the Custer Library, please only use Item Types of “Audiobook,” “Book,” “Circulating Reference,” “Large Print,” “Music CD,” and “Videos.” The others are used by various libraries in the Consortium.
5. Use the “Shelving Location” tab to limit your results by location. For example, if you are only interested in “Adult” and “Young Adult” materials, check those boxes.
6. Use the “Collection” tab to limit the results by type. For example, if you are only interested in “Non-Fiction” materials, check that box.
7. You can use the next section to further limit your options. In this example, I am choosing to look only at the Custer and Hermosa libraries, I am only interested in items currently available (checked box), and I have asked for them to be sorted by copyright date — newest to oldest. Once you have made all of your choices, click on the green “Search” button.
8. Let’s look at other ways to narrow results. Let’s pretend I need two book sources for a paper on “Martin Luther,” so I entered his name as a keyword search and did not provide other limiting factors, such as item type, shelving location or collection. My search reveals 22 results. I notice right away that some of the results are for Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader, not Martin Luther, the reformer. There’s a simple way to use Advanced Search to narrow down the results.
9. Go to the Advanced Search and enter “Martin Luther” once again. Use the second search field to choose “not,” then enter “King Jr.” and conduct the search. Now, the search has narrowed to 6 results because results that contain “King Jr.” have been filtered out.
10. Here’s a few other tips about using the Advanced Search:
a. Use and in a search when you want to narrow your results to those that have both words/phrases in them. For example, “photo” and “journalism.”
b. Use or in a search when you want to broaden your results to contain any of your search terms. For example, enter “cloning” or “reproduction”
c. Use not in a search when you want to narrow your search as in the example above with Martin Luther not King Jr.
11. You can use the facets on the left to narrow your search further. For example, you can click on “Book” under “Item Types” to get rid of “Video” results.
Do you offer a story time?
Story-time is offered at 10:00 a.m. on Fridays from late September to mid-May except during weeks when Custer Schools are on break or when school is in session on Friday, such as on the Friday of Homecoming week or during snow make-up days. The hour includes stories, coloring, a craft, and a snack.
Does the library provide proctoring services?
Yes, the library provides free proctoring services Monday through Friday during open hours. You are responsible for ensuring that a member of our staff is approved as a proctor for your course and scheduling our proctoring services in a timely member. We can even proctor tests for visitors of our community as long as they get approval from the educational institution.
What other services does the library provide?
Custer State Park Passes
Puzzles
Seascope, Explorer Scope, and Microscope
Study Rooms and Meeting Spaces
Projector for in Library Use
Seed Library
Year Round Book Sale
Cricut Maker 3