Circulation Information

The Following people are eligible for a free card:

• Ocean County residents

• Ocean County Business owners

• Ocean County teachers and librarians with proof of employment

• Ocean County students

• Burlington County residents*

• Monmouth County residents*

Out-of-county customers with proof of address may purchase a temporary card for $9.50 a month.

*Ocean County Library has reciprocal borrowing with Burlington County Library and Monmouth County Library. Burlington or Monmouth residents need to bring their county library card and proof of address to activate reciprocal borrowing privileges.

To get your card, bring current identification and proof of Ocean County residency to any branch. You may also apply for a card through our website, however, a valid Ocean County, NJ address ID must be presented at an Ocean County Library branch to pick up the new card. No item(s) may be checked out until a valid card is issued by an Ocean County Library branch.

Children are able to obtain an Ocean County Library Card at any age. The signature of a parent or guardian is required for the issuance of a library card to minor children under the age of 17 years.

A maximum of 30 items may be checked out per library card.

Yes, you can check out and return library materials at any of the 21 branches of the Ocean County Library. You may also return materials to the County Connection in the Ocean County Mall.

Books, audiobooks, music, nonfiction films, children’s magazines and Interlibrary Loan materials can be checked out for 21 days. Magazines can be checked out for 14 days. All feature film DVD’s can be checked out for 3 days and video games are checked out for 7 days. *Items in high demand may have their loan period reduced from 21 days to 14 days.

Fines for books, audiobooks, magazines, nonfiction DVD's, music and children's DVDs are .15 per day per item. For adult DVD features, videogames, and Interlibrary Loans, fines are .50 per day per item. There is a maximum fine of $15.00 per item. Borrowing privileges are suspended when unpaid fines and fees and/or the value of overdue, unreturned material exceeds $25.00.

In order to receive items that you’ve requested, please present the library card that was used for the request or valid identification at the circulation desk.

All materials except browser copies and magazines are available to be renewed twice if not requested by another customer. Interlibrary Loan materials may be renewed once for an additional seven days. There are several options that you can use to renew your library items. You can call the Automated Phone System (24 hours a day) to renew by phone, you can call the library and speak to a staff member, you can renew online by logging into your Library Account with your barcode and password or you can access your account through the My OCL app.

You are allowed to request up to 20 items.

Please fill out the online Request for Materials form on our homepage or speak to staff in your branch. The library will either purchase the item you are looking for or fill your request through an Interlibrary Loan from another library system.

If you know what your current password is, you can log in to your Library Account to change it. If you do not know your current password, you must go into any Ocean County Library Branch with your library card and a valid ID to request your password be changed.

Please stop by any library branch with a valid form of ID and staff will be happy to issue you a new library card at no cost. If you are not able to make it into a branch, please call any of our branches and staff can suspend your card.

Yes, the Ocean County Library has an eBook and Download Library Through resources like Hoopla, RBdigital, and eLibraryNJ, users with an active library card can access free digital and downloadable content such as eBooks, audiobooks, movies, magazines and more!