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Applied Life Studies

Borrowing library books

Print books can be borrowed from your home library and from other partner libraries using our Inter-site loans service.

How many books can I borrow?

All students can borrow up to 15 items at a time. The vast majority of materials can be borrowed for 4 weeks at at time. We recently introduced automatic renewals which will renew your item twice up to a total of 12 weeks as long as another library users has not requested it. If another user places a hold on the item during you will be expected to return it on the next renewal date.

Can I renew my books or materials online?

Yes, for any resources not covered by automatic renewal, you can renew your books online by logging into the my account page of Library Search.

If you have overdues, please contact your local library to renew them instead.

If I have overdue library items will the library contact me?

Overdue notifications are sent automatically  to your UHI email address once a book is past it's due date. You may also receive other email notifications to notify you that a hold is available to collect or a that a book has been recalled by the library.

Can I view my reading history?

Yes, but you need to activate the feature in order for the system to start storing your history. In 'my account', enter the 'profile' tab an ensure that 'Enable my Borrowing History' is activated.

borrowing history

Once activated, you can then view the 'Borrowing History' tab. Please note that the system only starts accruing your borrowing history once you have enabled the option.

Finding books in the library

When you enter a book record in Library Search you will see a list of availability at the UHI partner libraries.

Shelving location: Indicates the location of the book and the initial loan duration. Where no shelf is indicated, then the library main collection is implied.

Call number: Also know as the shelfmark or dewey Decimal number, it indicates the location of the item in the library. These numbers can be found on the spine label of books throughout the library. The main Dewey categories are:

000         Computer science, information and general works
100         Philosophy and psychology
200         Religion
300         Social Sciences
400         Language
500         Science
600         Technology
700         Arts and Recreation
800         Literature
900         History and Geography

Status: Indicates whether or not the book is currently available. If a date appears instead (eg. 19-09-22) it means the book is on loan and due back on that day.

Please ask your librarian if you have any difficulty finding a book on the shelves ,they are very happy to help.