Library Services for IALS Research Students (MPhil and PhD)

IALS Library contact

Your primary contact in the Library is Hester Swift, the Foreign and International Law Librarian.

If you would like a brief library induction, or if you require advice about using library resources, including databases, please contact Hester. Any questions or suggestions about the Library, its services and its collections, are also welcome.

Finding your way in IALS Library

Borrowing from IALS Library

IALS research students (MPhil and PhD) are entitled to our most generous borrowing privileges. However, IALS Library is primarily a reference library, so borrowing is limited.

You may borrow:

Three books from the main collection, for four weeks. (Please note that this period may be shortened should another reader reserve the book after you have borrowed it.)

Two books/ looseleaf volumes + five serial parts from the short loan collection, for three hours. Books borrowed after 4.45 p.m. ( or 2.15 p. m. on Saturdays) are due back an hour after the Library opens the next morning (or Monday morning if borrowed on a Saturday).

Journals and looseleaf volumes - whether short loan or main collection - are confined to the Library.

Renewals
Main collection loans can be renewed by telephone or via the Library Catalogue ; this can be done up to three times, as long as no one has reserved the book. Short loans cannot be renewed in this way, but you can bring short loan books back to the Issue Desk to be reissued, unless someone else has booked them.

For more information about loans and renewals, see the Loans and Renewals page.

Access to IALS e-resources

IALS Library subscribes to a large set of electronic resources and most can be accessed remotely.

Databases: To access a database, go to the Electronic Law Library and click on the name of the database. Select "onsite" if using an IALS Library PC, or "remote access" if using your own computer. For remote access, you will need to enter the barcode number from your Library card.

Electronic journals: To access an e-journal , either remotely or in the Library, find it on the Catalogue and click on the link to the online source. (Individual e-journals are not listed on the Electronic Law Library page.)

Full details about remote access to electronic resources are available here .

Using other libraries

PhD research normally involves the use of several different libraries. There are numerous excellent University of London libraries close to IALS and the British Library is not far away.

The Senate House Libraries group
IALS is part of a group of libraries collectively called "Senate House Libraries", consisting of Senate House Library itself and the libraries of the institutes of the School of Advanced Study (SAS libraries):

Senate House Library - the University of London's central library, focusing on humanities and social sciences
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Institute of Classical Studies
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies
Institute of Historical Research
Institute for the Study of the Americas
Warburg Institute - covering cultural history, art history and the history of ideas.

Your IALS Library card, or "SAS card", admits you to all of these libraries. However, borrowing is only available at Senate House Library and IALS.

All these libraries are in the Senate House building in Russell Square, except the Warburg Institute, which is in nearby Woburn Square. For more information, see the Senate House Libraries website .

Other University of London libraries
You are entitled to reference use of other University of London libraries under the University of London Libraries Access Agreement , on production of your SAS card.

You may borrow from many of these libraries, including SOAS, UCL, the LSE and King's, if you apply under the SCONUL Access scheme (see below.)

You can access electronic resources at some other University of London libraries. For example, at SOAS Library, visitors can use the computers on level D to access databases, while at the LSE and UCL there are dedicated computers for visitors. Please refer to individual libraries for further details.

The British Library
The British Library is fifteen minutes' walk from IALS. Information about the collections and details of how to apply for a reader pass are available on the Library's website.

SCONUL Access
IALS participates in the SCONUL Access scheme, which allows you to use, and borrow from, academic libraries all over the UK. For full details, see www.access.sconul.ac.uk/members.

To get a SCONUL Access card, contact the IALS Deputy Librarian, David Gee
(David.Gee@sas.ac.uk).

Nearby libraries offering borrowing under SCONUL Access include: