Information for Distance and Open Learners and Students at Tower Hamlets and on the European Teacher Programme
If your course is delivered as open learning or supported distance learning or you are based at Tower Hamlets or are on the European Teacher Programme at Woolwich Polytechnic School, you are entitled to use any of the College libraries, but we appreciate that opportunities to visit the campuses in person are limited. For students without access to other appropriate libraries, the College Library offers additional services.
Please also see the Tower Hamlets and European Teacher Programme pages for more information about access to other libraries.
Help for your Subject
Please look at the Resources for your Subject page to find information on the services and resources which you will find particularly useful.
If you have a specific subject enquiry, please get in touch with your library subject contact.
Library Opening Hours
How to Contact the Library
The Distance and Open Learning contact in each library is
Ambleside - Sylvia Bowling tel: 015394-30372
Carlisle - Linda Moses tel: 01228-616218 or -616262
Lancaster - Karen Tyers tel: 01524-384243
When you are contacting the library, please indicate that you are a distance or open learning student, or are based in London.
Joining the Library
If you are visiting one of the College campuses, please go into the library to obtain your library card. If you not visiting the College, get in touch with your distance learning contact and we will send you one. If you are based in London you should receive a library card at the beginning of your course. You must produce your card if you wish to borrow material in person. Please quote your Borrower number (the one under the barcode on your card) on all correspondence.
You will also need your library PIN to renew and request books. You should have been sent an email to your College email account with this information. Please contact the library if you have not received one.
If you change your home address, please remember to tell the College Registry so they can amend their records. This will automatically update the information the library holds.
Searching the Library catalogue
The St Martin's library catalogue is available on the web at http://libcat.ucsm.ac.uk/TalisPrism/.
Click on Your Loans on the library web site (or My Account on the catalogue) to check what books you have on loan and to renew any that will soon be due for return. You can also check details of any reservations and financial charges, and check the progress of any interlibrary loans you have requested.
Reading lists for some courses are accessible on the web site. From the reading list, you can easily check the classmark and availablility of the books.
eBooks
You can access the full text of many books from netLibrary. The eBooks page will give you more information or you can access netLibrary directly. You will need an Athens username if you are off-campus.
Postal Book Loans
A postal loan service is available for distance and open learning and London based students. Books and pamphlets (excluding out of print material) held by St Martin's College library may be posted to students within the UK. We regret that books or pamphlets cannot be posted abroad.
Please see the Borrowing Entitlement information for details of how many books you are allowed to have on loan. You will not be allowed to exceed your limit so please check how many books you already have on loan before you request a postal loan (check Your Loans if you are not sure). If you are a final year student, you may apply for extra loans but you will need to have a form signed by your tutor in advance. Please look at the Extra Loans for Final Year Students information.
Check the St Martin's library catalogue to see if the book is in stock. If it is, click on the Request button next to the title. At the Login page, enter your borrower number and PIN. Click on the Place Request button. Next to Choose which site from which you wish to collect the item: select Postal Loan from the dropdown menu and then click on the Confirm button. The book will be sent to the address we have for you, so it is important that you inform the College Registry if you change your address so that our records can be updated.
Alternatively, you can complete a Book Request form (Word document) which can be printed out and posted, faxed or sent as an email attachment to the St Martin's library which stocks the book.
If the book is not in stock in the library, see the section on interlibrary loans below.
Photocopies of book extracts may be sent in the UK or abroad, subject to copyright legislation. Please see the section on Photocopies of articles below.
Individual copies of books are designated either one week or four week loan (but see the section on Extended Loans below). Please check the due date inside the book when you receive it and remember to renew or return it before it is due back, otherwise you will incur a fine. Please familiarise yourself with our fines policy to avoid having your borrowing rights suspended. Please see the Payment of Charges section for information on how to pay any fines.
You have the same borrowing quota as full time undergraduates and postgraduates.
Returning books
Students are required to pay return postage and are responsible for the book until it is received back in the library. You are strongly advised to get a Certificate of Posting from your post office. If someone requests a reservation for a book on loan to you, you will be contacted and asked to return it.
Renewing books
Items (apart from Short Loan items) may be renewed an unlimited number of times by telephone (0845 602 6124 for our 24 hour automated telephone renewal service), fax, email or by clicking on Your Loans on the library web page, or My Account on the catalogue (you cannot renew an item this way if it is already overdue). You cannot renew an item if it has been reserved by someone else. You will need your library number and your PIN to do automated renewals.
Extended Loans
One week loans can be borrowed for two weeks if they are posted, to allow you to have them for the full 7 days, taking into account postage times to and from the library. You may be able to arrange extended borrowing for four week loan items, by prior arrangement with the library staff. It is your responsibility to inform library staff in advance as extended loans cannot be arranged retrospectively.
Photocopies of journal articles and book extracts
The full text of some journals is available on the web. If you want to find a specific article, look up the journal title on the library catalogue. If issues of the journal are accessible on the web, you will see a link which will take you to the eResource where you can find the article, or to the publisher's web site. You will probably need a username and password to access the article - please see the section on eResources below for further information.
If you cannot find your article on the web, you can ask for photocopies of articles from journals and extracts from books in stock in St Martin's library to be sent to you, within the UK or abroad, subject to copyright legislation. Please fill out a Photocopy Request form (Word document) , using a separate form for each request (copyright law requires one signature per copy).
Post or fax the forms to the St Martin's site library which stocks the item you require. A charge of 5 pence per sheet (with a minimum charge of 50 pence) will be made to cover the cost of photocopying.
UK copyright law allows the photocopying of no more than one chapter of a book or 5% of the whole book, whichever is the greater, and no more than one article from a single issue of a journal for an individual student. To comply with current copyright law, each article or book extract request must be accompanied by a fully completed and signed request form confirming that the copy will be used for private study or research for a non-commercial purpose. No requests will be processed until the Library has received a fully completed and signed form by post or fax. Emailed forms, 'scanned' copies of the forms and electronic signatures are not acceptable under the Copyright Act. More information is available from the UK Copyright Licensing Agency.
To acquire articles from journals not held in St Martin's library, please see the section on interlibrary loan requests below.
Interlibrary Loan Requests
If you are a student on the London campus, you can request Interlibrary Loans from Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services at a cost of £2 per request.
If you are a distance or open learning student and the library does not stock a book or a journal article (in print or electronic format) which you require for private study or research for a non-commercial purpose, we can try to borrow it from the British Library or from another library for you. Books obtained from other libraries via interlibrary loan cannot be sent to you through the post, and have to be collected and returned in person. You may find it cheaper and more convenient to use the interlibrary loan service provided by your local public library or, if you are employed by the NHS, your local NHS library.
If you want St Martin's College library to order a book for you, please fill out a Book Request form (Word format) and post, fax or send it as email attachment to the site library with which you are registered. You will be notified when the book is available for collection.
The library can obtain a photocopy of a journal article from another library for you, subject to copyright legislation. Please fill out a Photocopy Request form (Word format) and post or fax it to the site library with which you are registered (email will not be accepted, as the form has to be signed). Photocopies will generally be supplied by mail or fax within the UK and by surface mail or fax to students abroad.
There is a non-refundable charge of £2.00 per book or photocopy interlibrary loan request for undergraduates and taught postgraduates. If you are a research postgraduate, your division/school will probably pay, but you will need to have the request form countersigned by the Head of Division/School. Please submit your requests well in advance of deadlines, to allow for the material to be obtained for you.
Payment of charges
Payment for photocopies, interlibrary loans and fines is requested in sterling by return, or next time you are attending College. Cheques should be made payable to St.Martin's College and sent to the distance learning contact in your site library. Prompt payment of costs is encouraged; a debit ceiling of £10.00 is in place. Students with outstanding debts may be prevented from graduating.
eResources
If you are unfamiliar with finding information and searching eResources, it would be worth looking at Leicester University Library's web tutorial on Information Retrieval Skills for Distance Learners. Some of the information refers specifically to Leicester University but it is a good general introduction to the basic skills.
You can access the eResources either as an alphabetical list or grouped by subject. These are searchable by keyword and will give you references to books and journal articles, and sometimes the full text of articles. The eResources can be accessed over the web but you will require a username or password as indicated for each database.
To access most of the eResources you need an Athens username and password. Please look at the Athens web page for more information. Some of the eResources require a different username and password, details of which are only available if you are working on a computer in college - please contact the library for these.
For help with searching the eResources, please get in touch with your library subject contact.
With present staffing levels, it is not possible to undertake literature searches for students.
If you are an NHS employee or are on placement in the NHS, you will have access to other clinical databases and full text journals. You will need a separate Athens username to access these. Please ask in your local NHS library for further information and advice on using these.
Websites
Please look at the Web Links page for useful websites, grouped together by subject, as well as subject gateways to good quality evaluated websites. There are also links to useful tutorials to help you make best use of the internet.
Using Other Libraries
The Using Other Libraries page will give you information on other local libraries you may be able to join or use for reference. The UK Libraries Plus scheme entitles distance learning and part time students and full time postgraduates to join and borrow from other member libraries - you can download an application form here (in pdf format).. If you are an NHS employee, please investigate what services and resources your local NHS library can offer you.
Need more information?
If you need further help or information, please get in touch with your distance learning contact or your subject contact.