Requesting resources

The festive season might have come and gone, but being a librarian is a bit like being Santa Claus – all year round. Instead of delivering toys and games (or a lump coal, if you’ve been naughty…) we deliver KNOWLEDGE. Or, perhaps more accurately, we provide access to it. In fact, we provide access to a huge range of resources, including the physical items held in our libraries, archives and museums, subscriptions to electronic journals and databases and guidance on accessing open research resources. Something for everyone, surely. But sometimes, this is not enough. Sometimes our users need MORE!

So in addition to this – in order to provide a more efficient and appropriate service – we now have a fabulous ‘Resource Request’ service that allows our users to: 

• Request access to items outside of our collections
• Request access to print resources if you are not currently living in Durham
• Suggest a new item to be added to our collections
• Request further copies of items to be purchased

This is a ‘catch-all’ request service that means there is no longer a need to faff about with separate forms for services such as Inter-Library Loans, Store Requests, More Books and Liberate My Library requests. They’re all handled via this one form.

“But, tell me more about these great services” I hear you cry.

• Inter-Library Loans gives Durham University staff and students access to material not currently held by the Library, including books, journals, chapters, articles, theses, conferences and patents. Loads of extra stuff.
• We don’t have room for all our books at Bill Bryson Library, so we operate a remote store in a secret location to keep less used books in. When you search on the catalogue, you will sometimes find an item location is listed as ‘remote store.’ This means you’ll have to place a request for it. Store items are retrieved from The Place That Cannot Be Named once a week
• More Books is an easy and direct way for all Durham University staff and students to tell us about books you think should be added to the Library. Whether it’s more copies of existing books, a book you’ve found that we don’t have or a new book that’s just been published, let us know using our Resource Request form and we will try and buy it.
• We have wonderful collections across Durham’s libraries and museums, but we want to make our collections even more diverse. To do this we are encouraging staff and students to recommend items that will increase the diversity of the library’s collections and help us to ‘Liberate My Library’. Got a suggestion? Get it submitted!

So basically, if a user requests and item, we decide (based on the nature of the request and any accompanying contextual information) the best way to fulfil it. This might be through making a purchase, retrieving an item from store or by borrowing it from another library. If we can get it for you, we will.

You can find out more and make a Resource Request here