The Iowa State University Library serves four broad constituencies.

1. Current ISU students, faculty, staff, and associates: Users in this category constitute the Library's primary clientele, and their information needs figure prominently in planning for library programs and services. These users have broad, direct, and (in some cases) priority access to the Library's information resources and services. This includes privileges to borrow items from the physical collections, and unrestricted access (both local and remote) to the vast number of networked electronic resources licensed by the library and available via the e-Library.

Users in this constituency include:

• Students currently enrolled at Iowa State University, both on-campus and through distance education programs
• Faculty and staff currently employed by Iowa State University, both on-campus and in remote locations (including University Extension)
• Visiting faculty/scholars affiliated with an ISU department, program, center, or office
• Collaborators and associates working on the ISU campus or with ISU departments, in federal laboratories (such as the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory), or at the Iowa State University Research Park

2. Affiliated borrowers: Users in this category, while not currently employed or enrolled at Iowa State University, have some affiliation with the university and have registered with the ISU Library to obtain limited borrowing privileges. They are also entitled to use the Library's various public services (access to interlibrary loan, media and microform collections and equipment, etc.). While they do not have remote access to the Library's licensed electronic resources, they do have unlimited "in-house" access to these resources, as does any visitor to our physical library facilities.

Users in this constituency include:

• Retired ISU faculty/staff and their spouses
• Spouse or dependent of a currently-enrolled ISU student, or a currently-employed faculty/staff member
• ISU alumnus/alumna or member of the ISU Alumni Association
• Member of the ISU Library Friends Association
• Students currently enrolled, or faculty/staff currently employed, at the University of Iowa or the University of Northern Iowa
• Member of the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program
• Authorized researchers in Ames and surrounding communities (if approved)

3. Non-affiliated users from Ames, the State of Iowa, the U.S., and around the world: Requests to use the ISU Library's collections and services arrive daily from a vast array of non-affiliated users--some as close as the community of Ames, some from the other side of the globe. Non-affiliated users visit the library in person, or contact us by letter, phone, email, online chat services, and Web-based request forms. While the needs of our primary clientele receive priority consideration, every effort is made to provide information or referrals to non-affiliated users, within reason and within the constraints of local resources (collections, staffing, etc.)

4. The wider community of Library and Information Science professionals: Professionals in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) form a highly networked and interdependent community--within the state of Iowa, across the U.S., and around the world. We share information, best practices, and the results of our research and scholarship. We have a strong tradition of collaboration and resource-sharing, to better meet the needs of our various local constituencies.