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East Coast College Libraries: Inter Library Resource Requests

Inter library resource request

An interlibrary resource request can be made when you need to access a journal article or book chapter which we do not have in our collection at UoS Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft. At our Library we are registered members of the British Library Service which gives access to resources held within the British Library Document Supply Centre as well as many other registered lending libraries across the country. 

First steps

When using research databases you may find references to materials which we do not hold at East Coast College. When this happens you should work through the following list of suggestions:

  • read around the subject area - it may be that other articles or books cover the same subject area and can give you the information you are looking for.
  • look at the keywords, read the abstract and explore the bibliography to look at other works cited within the piece of research. Many databases make this available free-or-charge as part of the search results list. This can help you determine how you might find other related articles or books.
  • discuss the article with your lecturer - they have subject expertise and can help you explore the subject area.
  • Schedule an appointment for research skills support. The Librarian can help you improve your research skills, and explain how databases index materials and which ones are the most appropriate for the area you are researching. Information is also available in our Assignment Planning Toolkit.
  • Look at our workshop schedules and find out when we are holding one which can help you to develop your research and academic skills, or try one of our online courses. The workshops are currently all held at Ipswich, but you are very welcome to attend.
  • Collect and manage your references within a reference management tool - so that you can build your own library of resources, found through the internet, database searches or by searching other publisher or institutional catalogues. In doing this you can also save .pdfs and track how your research has evolved and developed.

It is important that you develop all of these skills as part of your academic journey - and they can, of course, help you in your future studies and careers.

If you still need the item you have found, please email the library.

 

Discovery Widget

Making a request

Books and articles can be requested through the Library helpdesk. We do need a signature on all requests for articles to ensure copyright compliance. 

You can collect a request from from the Library helpdesk. It will usually take 5-10 working days for the requested item to arrive. 

Many national and international academic institutions make their PhD theses available for researchers to access either digitally or through paper / fiche loans. References for PhD theses may be found through database searches. 


UK Theses

UK theses are often made available through the British Library's EThOS service. this should be checked before any requests are made through the interlibrary loans service.

International Theses

North American institutions often have their own online repositories which can be found and searched via their websites.

Attribution

All images included in this guide are available through Creative Commons licensing CC-BY-2.0