Information from every source and for every purpose

Up until your final year project/dissertation, the many printed and online resources you need will all be available from our own collections.  Sometimes final year research projects and postgraduate research requires access to such specialised information that we could not possibly afford to subscribe to everything that might be needed in advance.

When you need books or articles that the Library cannot provide, particularly for project and dissertation research, the Library can often obtain copies from the British Library.  For items you cannot retrieve through the Discovery Service, you can click the “Interlibrary Loan Service” link that appears to complete the interlibrary loans form automatically for the work you want.  We are working to provide interlibrary loans that you can order online but at currently we need you to print the order form, sign the copyright declaration, and ask your tutor to sign to authorise the loan.  Digital copies of journal articles and book chapters typically take only 2-3 working days to arrive by email, while entire books and journal issues arrive by post, normally within 7-10 days.  Full details are available from the Library website.

Some of you may wonder where all these articles and books come from.  While we do sometimes borrow from, and lend to, other large university libraries, the vast majority of our interlibrary loans and all the scanned articles we request come from the British Library, the large national library near St Pancras Station in London.  New Scientist recently published a handy infographic full of facts and figures on the British Library.

The British Library is a copyright deposit library, meaning a copy of everything published in the UK should have been sent to the British Library to be added to its collection.  The British Library also purchases copies of many things published elsewhere and has a huge and diverse collection of materials.  It is even possible to apply for a reader pass and read reference copies of rare work in the British Library reading rooms.  Details of how to apply are available from the British Library website.

By sourcing information in print and online and obtaining specialist materials from elsewhere as they are needed, your Library provides comprehensive and cost-effective support for everything you need.