Access
Access to information is facilitated by an appropriate balance of holdings and electronic access, interlibrary loans and national access arrangements, which aims to enable convenient access for all students and staff. In addition to this, special allowances may be made for certain groups, where reasonably practicable.
Holdings and Electronic Access
The Library maintains and develops holdings to support the academic programme of the University, serving the teaching, learning and research needs of its students and staff.
A flexible loan policy increases the availability of material. Loan categories are: long loan (4 weeks), intermediate loan (7 days) and short loan (either 1 day or 4 hours). Categories are determined and reviewed by Library staff in conjunction with Faculty staff according to anticipated demand.
Access to electronic collections is, where possible, authenticated by the UK Access Management Federation to facilitate access both on and away from campus.
Details of the holdings of Special Collections can be seen below.
Interlibrary loans
The Interlibrary Loans service offers access to material which is not in stock. Whole copies of books or journal issues can be supplied for loan, while articles and chapters of books are supplied as photocopies or electronically.
Requests cannot normally be made for items which are in stock, unless the item is missing, at binding, very overdue or on loan over the summer vacation and needed urgently.
Allocations are made within the faculty funds to cover the costs. Faculties may reduce or increase this allocation within their overall budget and have responsibility for rationing their own users if necessary. Control of the overall, agreed budget will be undertaken by the Library.
Requests for items which are not relevant to the user's academic work cannot be charged to Faculty funds, but can be paid for personally at the time of request.
National access arrangements
University of Portsmouth participates in SCONUL Access, a co-operative venture between most of the higher education libraries of the UK and Ireland. The scheme offers access to other academic libraries for staff, researchers, taught postgraduates, part-time, distance learning and placement students. Users on 'Registered Only' collaborative courses are not eligible to participate in the scheme.
