Student book recommendations – all about More Books
As postgraduate students continue their research over the summer, we would like to bring your attention to the more books service. If you come across a book in your research which we don’t have, and you think we should, students can email [email protected] to recommmend it to the Library. We assess all the emails received, and in most cases we will buy the book, and set it aside for you. In academic year 2021-2022 over 1400 titles were ordered through the more books service.
There are a few things to consider when deciding whether to request the Library purchase a book through the more books service.
- Do you think the book is likely to be crucial to your research? If you think a book is likely to be crucial for your research, perhaps you’ve read a review, or you’ve seen numerous citation to the book and you think you’ll need to make extensive use of it, then recommending it through the morebooks service may be more appropriate or cost-effective than e.g. inter-library loan. We ask that you only recommend books your will use for your research.
- How quickly do you need the book? Books can take a few weeks to arrive from suppliers, assuming they are still in print and readily available, so if you can, plan your reading so that you can access the books you need when you need them. If you need something urgently, then let us know and we will try to get it urgently.
- Is the book in print? Out of print books can often be obtained through the more books service, but sometimes it’s quicker for us to obtain these through the Inter-Library Loans service. Please email [email protected] if you need a book which is out of print, Library staff will investigate the best way for us to get what you need, and we’ll keep you informed.
- What format will be most useful to you, do you need an ebook, or would a print format be best, or does format not matter? Ebooks are generally quicker to get access to, but not everything is available in ebook format, see our ebook guide for more information about why an ebook might not be available. If you prefer print books, or if an ebook is better for your needs then please include this information when you recommend a book, we’ll do our best to get the format you need.
- If you want to order lots of books, will you realistically have time to read everything you’ve come across? We want to ensure that the books we buy will be used. It’s tempting to order everything you come across all at once, but we ask that you prioritise your requests, selecting things you need most within the short to medium term. You can always request more books once you’ve had a chance to use the books you have requested. There are no specific limits to the number of requests you make, but we need our budget to cover all student recommendations throughout the year, so please ask for no more than 5 titles at a time, it’s helpful if you can tell us which titles are most important for your research.
- How expensive is a book? If a book costs more than £200 we won’t be able to purchase it through the morebooks service. However we will work with you, your school, and other Library services to determine if a book would be useful in our collection, or if there are alternative ways to obtain what you need, so please do ask!
- Does a book you have borrowed keep getting recalled? Library books are meant to be shared, but it can be really frustrating if you find that a key book keeps getting recalled. If you’re struggling to get enough time with a book, you can ask that we try to order another copy.
- Some other resources can be requested through the more books service, generally things which don’t have recurring costs, so you can use the more books service to request a DVD, music score, etc.
The library has a long tradition of developing it’s collections in collaboration with University staff and students, see our Special Collections blog to read more about this. It’s not unusual for books recommended by students through the more books service to find their way onto module reading lists, helping ensure our collections develop to meet the needs of future researchers and students.
The Library can also borrow books on your behalf from other libraries, or if you just need a chapter from a book, or journal article which the Library doesn’t already have we may be able to get this for you. See the Inter-Library Loans guide for more information on using this service.
We have a display on level 1 of the Main Library of a selection of titles which were requested by postgraduate students in academic year 2021/22 to give a flavour of the types of books we buy. Have a look at the display, and feel free to borrow from it. If you have any questions, or would like to submit a request, email [email protected].