It’s a library item, but you can’t take it home with you. In fact, when you check it out, it’s due back in just 30 minutes. That hasn’t hurt the popularity of Cooper the therapy dog, a 4-year-old Shih Tzu who can be borrowed from Harvard’s Countway Library of Medicine.

Cooper can be checked out by Harvard ID holders, just like a library book, for 30 minutes at a time. An unusually calm dog, he’s content to wrestle with a toy or cuddle on the library desk’s worn, brown couch with his “patients.”