Borrower information

Including information relating to loans, returns, renewal, fines and charges, library notices, reserving books and your library record. You should also familiarise yourself with the library regulations

Information for borrowers

You will need your Library card whenever you want to borrow material from the Library. We have a self-issue machine located in the circulation hall on the 4th floor in the South Block and another opposite the circulation desk on the 2nd floor in the North Block that will allow you to borrow books without having to queue at service points, please follow the instructions on the screen and remember to take your receipt with you. Alternatively you can take your items to any circulation desk. There the book will be issued to you and the date it is due for return will be stamped inside the cover or printed automatically on the receipt you receive from the Self-issue machine.

Most books can be borrowed for up to four weeks with some of our more popular books on two week loan period. Reference items are not for loan.

Loan allocations

University of London undergraduates can borrow up to 8 books
University of London taught postgraduates can borrow up to 10 books
University of London research postgraduates and academic staff may borrow up to 12 books
Study abroad programmes borrowers may borrow up to 8 books for 2 weeks
For all other borrowing categories, up to 8 books may be borrowed

Remember to return or renew the book by the due date or a fine will be charged. Always check your library account to ensure you are aware of any due dates, fines or charges.

The Issue Desks closes 15 minutes before the advertised Library closing time so please make sure you allow sufficient time for your books to be issued. Do not attempt to leave the Library with any item which has not been issued to you or the alarm will sound at the exit gate.

Returning books

The date a book is due for return is stamped inside the cover when the book is issued and it is recorded on your Library record. You can check the due date of any book you have borrowed at any time by checking your library account.

All books can be returned to the Returns Desk on the 4th floor South Block where we also have a self-returns machine or to the 2nd floor North Block where there is also a self-return machine or to the Ground Floor Small Hall in the North Block.. Please follow the instructions on the screen and remember to take your receipt with you. Remember that you are responsible for the safekeeping and timely return of all books borrowed on your Library card. Please return them to the Returns Desk by the due date or you will be charged for each day that the book is overdue.

A Returns Box is also located at the reception in the North Block of Senate House. This is available when the library is closed (except from Sundays 6.00PM to 6.30AM Monday mornings). It is emptied at the start of each day Monday - Saturday.

We recommend that you return items in person as they remain your responsibility until they are received by the Library. If you do have to post items back to us we advise the use of a signed for service such as Recorded Delivery.

Renewing books

Items that you have on loan can be renewed, provided that someone else has not reserved them and you do not have any outstanding charges on your Library card. There are three ways to renew:

Online through your library account by using the Log in option.
By telephone on 0207 862 8500.
At any Issue Desk in the Library

Remember that fines are charged on overdue books so please make sure you renew any books you have not finished using before they are due for return.

Fines and charges

To encourage the prompt return of items fines are charged at 30p per day. You will not be allowed to borrow books if you have a fine of £3 or more.

Lost or Damaged Books - A replacement charge of £50 will be assessed for each lost book. Replacement copies which are provided by readers to replace lost or damaged library materials are subject to a £10 fee for administration and processing.

Lost Tickets - There is a replacement charge of £10 for a lost library card.

Library notices

Communication with our users will normally be via email. If you don’t have an email account, overdue, reservation and recall notices will be posted to you at home. Courtesy notices letting you know when books are due to be returned are sent via email only. It is the user's responsibility to return books to the library on time. Failure to receive a Library notice for whatever reason will not be deemed sufficient grounds for being exempted from paying a fine.

Receiving notices by email
This is often the quickest and most flexible way for us to contact you. In normal circumstances, this will be within 24 hours of an item becoming overdue or a reservation being made available for collection. Please ensure we have your correct email address and that you check your emails on a regular basis. You can check your contact details by logging on to your account via the Library catalogue.

While the Library will make every effort to contact you, we cannot confirm or guarantee delivery of notices. Notices are a courtesy and non-receipt does not exempt the borrower from overdue fines or charges. We cannot guarantee receipt of notices either by email or post.

Important warning to Hotmail users
The Hotmail default setup filters out emails sent by anyone other than your selection of nominated email addresses. You MUST adjust your Hotmail account to allow our notices to pass through the Hotmail default filter. Please make sure that this address: circadm@catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk is setup as authorised to send you email. Failing to adjust the Hotmail filter will result in our notices being treated as junkmail!

Library services and handheld devices
We are unable to guarantee that emails from Senate House Library will be received if you are using a handheld device such as an iPhone or Blackberry or that we will receive emails sent from such devices. Nor can we guarantee that access to our online services including the catalogue, renewals and online databases will work correctly from such devices. If you wish to contact us or use our electronic services we strongly advise that you use a notebook or desktop computer.

Reserving books

If the book you want is already on loan to another Library user, you can reserve it as follows;

Search the catalogue for the item you want and if it is on loan, choose the Request button. Follow the on-screen instructions to place a reservation on the book so that when it is returned it will be held for you. You will be prompted to type in your name and user number (the number written underneath the barcode on your Library ticket). When typing in your user number, ensure that you type in the whole number without leaving any spaces and include any final check digit or character such as X .

You will be notified by email when the book is available for you, or you can check on the Main Catalogue by choosing the Log in option. Reserved books will be held for 8 days, and can be collected from the Issue Desk on the 4th floor.

Your library record

You can check your Library Record using the Main Catalogue. Choose the Log in option and follow the on-screen instructions.

You will need to type in your name and Library ticket number in order to access your record. Type in the whole number as it appears underneath the barcode on your Library ticket (omitting any spaces) and the final check digit or character such as X..

Using this option you can:

Check your name, address and any other personal information kept about you by the Library
Check which books you have on loan (checked out) and when they are due for return
Renew any books which are due for return that you still require
Check any reservations (holds) you have made
Check any outstanding charges (fines) you may have

Please keep your Library ticket safe and report its loss immediately to prevent unauthorised access to your record. Tel. 020 7862 8439.

Postal loan service

If you have borrowing membership of Senate House Library we can post books out to you upon request. We only post books to addresses in the UK and Ireland.

Placing an order
To order postal loans, please use the online Postal Loan Order Form.

What can be posted?
We can post out anything that can normally be borrowed. This means we cannot lend periodicals, Reference Only books, or books that were published more than 100 years ago. We may sometime decline to post an item out if we consider it to be too large or fragile.

How long will it take?
Most requests will be satisfied within 3 working days. We use Parcel Force’s 48 hour service to ship items to you.If any of the items you have ordered are unavailable we will contact you to let you know before posting anything to you.

What does it cost?
The cost is £9 per parcel. We will parcel books up in such a way that it works out at the cheapest possible cost.We will contact you before posting anything if more than one parcel will be required.

How to pay?
The total amount is added to your library account as a bill. You can then pay by cheque when you return the items. Cheques should be made payable to ‘University of London’.

Please note, that you will be unable to access electronic resources, or renew your books until you have paid the postage costs. You may therefore wish to pay over the telephone, rather than waiting until you return the books. To pay over the telephone, please call 0207 862 84500 and quote your membership number.

Returning books
You may return books either in person or by post. However, you remain responsible for the books until we actually receive them. You may therefore wish to use registered post with insurance. If a book is lost or damagedbefore it reaches us, you will be liable for the replacement cost.