Our form for 2023/24 requests has now closed. Look out for the 2024/25 request form which will be made available later in the year.
You can use this form to request any essential new ejournals, eresources or etextbooks for use in your teaching. Please also use this form for any ebook you would like to add to a resource list for simultaneous or class use by a whole cohort, as this needs a specific licence. More guidance on textbooks below.
We strongly recommend considering requests as a course team, before submitting the request, to ensure that you are requesting the most useful resources. There are inevitable budget constraints and we want to ensure that we purchase resources that will most benefit students.
For help completing the form and making a case for purchase/subscription, please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian.
As well as your business case, we also look at criteria that affect access. This includes compatibility with Library Search, usage statistics and how many users can access the resource. We rarely buy print journals as their format limits access.
We also gauge value before purchasing by looking at similar resources in our collection, and number of students in the subject area. We will run trials based on demand and staffing capacity.
Each year, we put together a review of requests, which go forward into our budget planning. Please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian if you'd like to see a review of last year’s requests.
Please add books for your courses on our Resource Lists system. It’s a one-stop shop for students to view all their module readings, and integrates seamlessly with Blackboard. Find out how to find, edit, and publish your lists.
Add the books you want your students to read, send the list for review and we’ll do the rest.
We will:
Remember to indicate if a book is essential to help us work out how many copies to buy.
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Dates requests placed |
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|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1/Term 1 Lists |
May – July |
August |
September – December |
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Semester 2/Term 2 Lists |
October – November |
December |
January – March |
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Term 3 Lists |
February - March |
April |
May – August |
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Will books be available to my students for the beginning of semester/term? |
Likely |
Possible (peak acquisitions period) |
Unlikely |
Our digitisation team can provide digital copies on request for a specific module according to the terms of our CLA licence.
Where a university book permitted for digitisation is available on Library Search and on the shelf, the Digitisation Team aim to fulfil requests within 5 working days. Please be aware this cannot be guaranteed during peak times. We would encourage staff to place requests in advance to prevent delays and complete the ‘needed by’ field on the request form.
When a university book is on loan or needs to be purchased for the library collection this process will take longer and a member of the Digitisation Team will contact you to advise.
You can order books and audio-visual materials that are not recommended on Resource Lists, for example, books that cover current scholarship or research in your area.
These items can be ordered up until the beginning of May each year, subject to budget and should be requested via your Academic Liaison Librarian.
We're also looking to expand our teacher training resources. Let us know your ideas through our Teaching Collection suggestion form.
Enhanced ebooks and etextbooks have quizzes and assessments, alongside standard book content. They often allow for live collaboration and provide staff with enriched data on each user. They are normally aimed at undergraduates. Unlike standard ebooks, access is restricted to named students.
Pricing is per student as an annual subscription. We generally purchase resources that are accessible to all. Please contact the Library Services for advice before buying any enhanced ebooks and etextbooks directly.
Please be aware that some publishers are hugely increasing their prices. In some cases, standard ebooks are being badged as enhanced and sold on subscription-only platforms, with expensive per student pricing. The Library can often acquire these for you at much lower cost and make them available to all students.
Our standard ebooks and etextbooks and digitised chapters are best for providing students with simultaneous access to key texts, such as in a teaching session. You should only consider buying an enhanced version if they aren’t available.
We’d recommend that you make a few checks before purchasing.
We can advise on alternatives, discounts and how to get good value for money and licensing terms. We can also put you in touch with other departments who use enhanced ebooks and etextbooks. Please contact Emily Wild, Head of Content and Open Scholarship for support.
We keep a record of enhanced ebooks and etextbooks used in the University, to help with collective pricing. Please add Deirdre Windsor, Finance Administrator, as a watcher in your procurement process.
The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) unit can help with making your purchase available through Blackboard. Please provide them with administrative rights to your purchases.
Contact the publisher representative for help with the platform and training.