Everything you need to know about using Senate House Library including inductions, services, borrowing books and more.
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Digital resources
The Library subscribes to a variety of digital resources or eResources, including ebooks, e-journals and databases.
In general, eResources are available to all SHL members onsite at SHL, with off-site access limited to University of London staff and students only.
For specific resource access please check access statements in the catalogue and eResource A-Z on our LibGuides platform.
How to access digital resources
Thousands of eBooks are available through eBook Central. (Please note that you will be required to login to the Library Catalogue before you can access the resource.)
Most eBooks also have individual entries on the Library Catalogue, so you can do a title, author or keyword search, followed by selecting the 'ebook' option in the sidebar (to limit your search to eBooks only).
The majority of the library's journal collections are available online. Most journal titles have individual entries on the Library Catalogue. (Please note that you will be required to login to the Library Catalogue before you can access the resource.)
You can also use the Catalogue's Electronic Resources tab to search through the contents of journals to find, for example, an individual journal article. Switch from the Catalogue tab to the Electronic Resources tab above the Catalogue's search bar to perform a search for single journal articles and other electronic content from digital publications, to which the Library has access.
In addition, you can access collections of digitized texts using the links at our eResources and eJournals catalogue, and then browse or search for available texts within the collection.
For instance the digitized texts held in:
- EEBO: Early English Books, now part of JISC Historical Texts
- ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, now part of JISC Historical Texts
- Making of the Modern World: Goldsmiths’-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850
There are also some important readily available external resources:
Senate House Library's digital galleries make available parts of the library's collections online.
View our digital galleries.
A full list of databases available through the library is available on the A-Z list on our LibGuides platform. Click on the relevant link listed on LibGuides and you will be asked to login to the Library Catalogue (if you have not already done so) to authenticate your Library membership.
A dedicated Online Library is available for University of London International Programmes students, faculty and staff. It is structured to support individual study courses.
Who has access?
In general, eResources are available to all SHL members onsite at SHL, with off-site access limited to University of London staff and students only. For specific resource access please check access statements in the catalogue and eResource A-Z on our LibGuides platform.
Access to eResources is permitted and restricted based on licence agreements with publishers and providers. In a very limited number of cases access permissions will change when agreements are renewed.
| User type | On-site access | Off-site access with SHL library card |
|---|---|---|
| School of Advanced Study | Yes | Yes |
| University of London Worldwide | Yes | Yes - primary access through Online Library |
| University of London federal institution | Yes | Yes - some resources restricted to on-site access |
| University of London alumni | Yes | Yes - see list of alumni eResources |
| Other Senate House Library members | Yes | No |
Accessing eResources in and outside of the Library
You can access all our eResources when you are inside the physical Library using the terminals in the 4th floor Service Hall, or when you are connected to the wifi network UoL Libraries.
If you connect to the internet via another wifi network (Eduroam, UOL Conference, etc) the system will treat you as being outside of the physical Library.
Eresource access, outside of the physical Library, is usually included with University of London student, faculty and staff Library memberships.
If you have eResource access as part of your membership you will need to access the eResource via the Library Catalogue (to authenticate you as a valid Senate House Library user). If you are not already logged into the Catalogue you will be asked to do so before being redirected to the eResource.
FAQs
Visit our LibAnswers page to see frequently asked questions and troubleshooting advice about eResource access.
Visit our Research Support page for video tutorials on searching for ebooks, e-journals and e-resources.
