SCONUL Access is a reciprocal scheme which allows many university library users to borrow or use books and journals at other libraries which belong to the scheme. The scheme covers most of the university libraries in the UK and Ireland.
Sconul Access has now reopened following its shutdown during the height of the Covid pandemic. Please see link below for applying for Sconul Access
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sconul-access
The British Library is no longer supplying theses for loan in microfilm format and will in future provide them in digitised format via their Electronic Theses Online Service EThOS.
Where theses have already been digitised they are available as a (usually) free download, thus doing away with the need for an Inter-library loan request.
Searching involves a very quick registration process available at ethos.bl.uk.
If the thesis you require is not yet digitised, you can order it directly (but with demand for digitisation so high at the moment, you may have to wait for a couple of months).
If you need to consult a thesis urgently, please let us know and we will contact the relevant University and ask if they are willing/able to lend the hard copy to us. However, if that copy is in the backlog at the British Library awaiting digitisation, there is very little that we will be able to do.
Please see the EThOS FAQ's page for further information.
You can request books and journal articles that are not held in any of the Middlesex University Library Collections using the Inter-Library Loans Service
. Requests can either be made online via the following link for Inter Library loans or in person at the Library.
British Library Reading Rooms
You may apply to use the reading rooms at the British Library at St Pancras if you are unable to resource your materials elsewhere. So, prior to your visit you must conduct a literature search and have investigated other methods of accessing items, also be aware that not all items are stored on site at St. Pancras, so check their online catalogue below.
The British Library Public Catalogue is at http://catalogue.bl.uk
Application forms to use the reading rooms are available from The British Library Website.
If you require a journal article request this through our Inter Library Loans service, details on this page