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Library Services

Borrowing books and more

Borrowing basics

As a student at Queen Mary you can borrow up to 40 items (books and DVDs) at a time. Use our self-service kiosks to borrow, all you need is your Queen Mary ID card. 

We have a flexible borrowing system – this means many library materials can be automatically renewed for up to 51 times unless they are requested by someone else. 

If all the copies of an item that you need are on loan to other readers, you can reserve it by placing a hold. We will then notify you by email when it becomes available. For students based in Malta, holds can only be placed for items held in the Malta Library; students based on a London campus can request items from any Queen Mary Library in London.

For London-based students, once you have finished with your item you can return them to any Queen Mary Library in London via the self-service kiosks during opening times, or via the out of hours book drops at Mile End and West Smithfield libraries. 

You can check which items you have on your account by logging-in to your Library Account Online. You will need your library barcode and PIN: 

  • Your library barcode is the 10 digit number starting ‘023…’ on the front of your ID card. If you don’t have an ID card you can also find this on your MySIS account 
  • To reset your PIN use our online PIN reset form. 

See our Borrowing Basics webpages for more information.

Finding items on the shelves

Use Library Search to find out where the items you need are located. See our Locating the books on the shelf webpage for more information. 

 

Accessing e-resources

On-campus

For most e-resources, on-campus authentication is seamless, meaning that resources will know you are accessing via the University network and allow access. 

A few will still require you to enter your Queen Mary username and password and you will be prompted to do so. For others you may need to register or use the login on the platform page. 

Off-campus

When accessing e-resources off-campus it is necessary to authenticate using your Queen Mary username and password. 

Please see our Accessing E-Resources webpage for more information. 

What to do if Queen Mary Libraries don't have the item you need

If you can’t find the item you are looking for in the Queen Mary Library collections you can: 

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