Finding resources elsewhere
Requesting non-university items
The Interlibrary Loan service enables you to request books, journal articles, and other materials which you need for your studies and which are not in the Library's stock.
In most cases, national or other university libraries can supply these requests. However we cannot guarantee that it will be possible to borrow everything you need - sometimes you may have to travel to consult the item.
The interlibrary loans service is for academic purposes only and it is important to check carefully that what you need is definitely not in our stock before you apply.
Using the service
Interlibrary loans can be used by all registered borrowers, except external borrowers, and, in the UK, NHS borrowers and open studies students in the School of Continuing Education.
Quotas are in place for inter-library loan requests.
Interlibrary loans [UK, China, Malaysia].
Requesting your interlibrary loan
UK and Malaysia
Interlibrary loans can be requested using the ILL form in NUsearch [UK: NUsearch, Malaysia: NUsearch Malaysia].
China
An email with with the approval of an academic member of staff, together with the original request should be forwarded to the Inter-Library Loan mailbox.
Checking the progress of requests
It is possible to check on the status of your requests within NUsearch [UK: NUsearch, China: NUsearch UNNC, Malaysia: NUsearch Malaysia]:
Notices about inter-library loans will be sent to your university email address. Please check your email regularly.
Finding books held by other libraries
Some of the libraries you may find useful include:
UK
Worldwide
Visiting other libraries (UK only)
The Sconul Access scheme enables staff and some students (excepting full-time undergraduates) to access and borrow from other participating UK libraries.
If you are eligible to use the scheme:
- Complete the online form
- Choose the library you want to visit
- After receiving an acceptance email, take the email and your university card to the host library. You will be provided with a library card valid for three years or until your course/contract expires.
Full-time undergraduates will normally be granted reference access to other higher education libraries in the UK and Ireland during the vacation of the host library.
The British Library Reading Rooms provide facilities to consult items from the British Library’s collections and access a range of electronic resources. Consult the registration information from the link above before your visit.