Main Reading Room

The Main Reading Room is home to the Reference Department and contains over 100,000 volumes of reference books. Food and drink, other than bottled water, is not permitted in this room.

The staff in the Main Reading room are able to help you with all types of enquiry so please do approach them if you need assistance.

At the front of the staff counter you will see the book requesting point. Items that need to be requested to the Reading Room may be requested online via iDiscover, but if you would prefer you can fill in a fetching request slip here.

When books are fetched, they are placed on the fetched books stand which is just beyond the staff counter. Fetched books are kept for the remainder of the day that they are fetched and the following working day. It usually takes around 30 minutes for books to be fetched, but this may be longer during busier times so try to plan ahead. The books fetched to this stand may be borrowed at the Reader Services Desk in the Entrance Hall.

It is possible to reserve fetched books for three working days. Reservation slips can be found on the desks. All you need to do it fill out the slip with your name and today's date, then tuck the reservation slip inside the bookand leave it where you are working. Books from the open bookstacks can also be reserved in this way, but it is not possible to reserve Reference Books. These will be returned to the shelves each evening.

To the left of the fetched books stand is a table of PCs. These PCs are used exclusively for reading electronic legal deposit items. Since 2013 publishers have been able to deposit an electronic copy of a work rather than a physical copy. These items are identifyable on iDiscover by the phrase 'Online access restricted to designated PCs in the UL and most faculty and department libraries.'

When using these PCs it is necessary to first accept the terms and conditions. The iDiscover interface is then used to search for the item that you want to view. When viewing journals, it is necessary to search for each article individually as this is how they are loaded onto the system. It is possible to print within copyright regulations, but no digital copy can be made.

At the back of the Main Reading Room. a large doorway leads to the West Room - which is our next destination.