Both books and journals are the main sources of academic information. You will need to use both of these types of publication in your studies. Many books and journals are available online and/or in printed format. The information below explains how to find and access both print and online items (books and journal articles) available from the Library.
Your reading lists are available online via the Blackboard course for your module. Your lists will:
Watch this short video to find out more about using your online reading list.
Search the Library catalogue Enterprise to find print and e-books held by the Library. It will show you where print books are located and whether there are any copies available to borrow, as well as providing an online link to E-books.
Search the Enterprise catalogue now by typing your search into the box below:
Looking for a specific book?
For example, search for the highlighted words to find this book:
Lanham-New, S.A., Macdonald, I.A. & Roche, H.M. (eds) (2011) Nutrition and metabolism. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Looking for books on a topic?
For example, search for the highlighted words in this essay title:
What effect has climate change had on food security in Africa?
If you are unable to view these videos on YouTube, they are also available on YuJa via the links below (University username and password required.
You should locate and borrow books from the Library yourself. To find a book on the shelf you'll need the floor it's located on and the Call Number. The Call Number gives you the specific location of the book - the numbers indicate the subject of the book and the letters show you which specific place on the shelves to look for it.
If you can't find your book, please ask a member of staff. We're here to help!
We have purchased thousands of e-books which are available to read 24/7 from any device which is connected to the internet. There will be direct links to e-books in your online reading lists, or you may find them yourself by searching the Library catalogue, Enterprise:
Search the Enterprise catalogue for the book or topic you need and once you are viewing your results, limit them using the Online and Book filters on the left-hand side.
Your results should now only include e-books. To read the e-book, follow the 'Click here for online access' link and enter your university username and password.
Most of our e-books may also be found in Summon, the Library’s discovery service. Using Summon will give you more results, as it is often able to search for your words at chapter-level.
To only see e-books in your results list, select the Publication Type E-book from the limits on the left-hand side.
You will need to refine your search even further to get results which are most relevant to you and the topic you are searching for. Look at the Library’s guide on Summon for search tips, including how to limit your results.
Search Summon using the box below (it is already set up to limit to books):
Use the Summon discovery service to find journal articles on a topic. Just pop in your search words and you'll find a list of relevant articles which you can access straight away, both on- and off-campus.
View our brief video for an intro to making the most of Summon:
If you want to explore resources beyond Summon, or do more sophisticated searching on specialist resources for your subject, then take a look at relevant databases using the link below:
Books are located on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Floors of the Library:
2nd Floor - computing, economics, education, law, politics, philosophy, psychology, social sciences
3rd Floor - art, linguistics & language, science and technology
4th Floor - history, literature, maps
Explore the links below for more detail:
Most books in the Library can be borrowed. You may collect them from the shelves yourself and take them to a Self-service Point to borrow. You'll need your Campus Card to borrow books.
All students may borrow up to 25 items at any one time for up to 6 weeks, subject to recall.
All items should be returned via the Book sorter, beneath the central staircase on the Ground Floor of the Library, or via the external Book Drop located to the right of the Library entrance.
See the link below:
If you are on campus you will be able to access most e-journals and e-books, and some databases, without entering a username and password because your IP address identifies you as being at the University of Reading.
For any that require a login, see the Off-campus tab.
When you use our e-resources you are agreeing to our Terms of Use. Please take a moment to look at these by following the link below:
When you are off-campus you will need to login to identify yourself as a member of the University of Reading to gain access to our protected databases, e-books and e-journals.
Your login details
You login in the same way as for Blackboard - via Microsoft. Just enter your University username followed by @student.reading.ac.uk (e.g. ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk) and your password. If this is the first time you have logged in via this method when off-campus you will be asked to complete a Multi-Factor Authentication. For more information see:
Getting to the login page...
Watch this short video on how you login to use Library resources.
Down at the London Road campus is the Special Collections Service. Their collections include rare books, manuscripts, records, letters, photographs, maps and drawings - they can be a great resource for your studies and dissertation.
