Our Colchester and Loughton libraries are open for borrowing as usual. Please check our Opening times before visiting.

If you only need a chapter or 5% of the total number of pages, you can try our Scan and Deliver service.

If all copies of a book are on loan, you can reserve a copy

If there are resources you would like to access that are not available in the library’s collection, there are two services run by the library that can help you obtain this material.  

The library's interlibrary loans service is most suitable for material for personal research and study purposes.

The library also accepts purchase suggestions from our users which you can use to recommend new titles to add to our collection.

Interlibrary Loan

• The quickest option to get the resources you need
• You can request a loan for a book or dissertation thesis, or a copy of a book chapter or journal article
• The library will let you know if we cannot source the item you request
• Useful for obtaining material needed for personal research or study

Purchase Suggestions

• The book you recommend may take some time to become available in our library catalogue
• The title may be supplied in physical or digital form
• All purchase suggestions are considered by our librarians, but this does not guarantee your suggestion will be purchased
• If your suggestion is purchased by the library, it will be available for all our users

If you are looking for something recommended for your course, please contact us via our contact us page with information about the module and the item you are looking for.

You can find out how to borrow books from our other University of Essex campuses via our FAQs:

Can I borrow books from another campus (Colchester, Southend, Loughton)?