Quick guide to the Birkbeck Library

The Library entrance is on the ground floor of the main Birkbeck building.
Before you visit us, please check our opening hours.
You will need the following to visit Birkbeck library: your Birkbeck student card to get into the library and borrow books and your ITS username and password if you want to use the computers and access the internet and electronic resources provided by the Library.

You need to register with the Disability Office
Once you have done that, you can access personal disability support services and use a range of specialist equipment and software.
There is a lift to all floors of the Library.

Search the Library catalogue for books, ebooks, print journals, CDs and DVDs. You can also search the catalogue from wherever you have access to the internet.
Borrow books: Undergraduate students can have up to 10 books on loan at any one time; postgraduate and MPhil/PhD students can have up to 15 books on loan at any one time.
Renew books: Three-week and one-week loan books can be renewed if another reader has not reserved them.
Use computers for word processing, access to the internet and more (log on with your ITS username and password).
Print (is your print account topped up?).
Use the photocopiers - get a photocopying card.

Get access to more than 20,000 electronic journals, over 50 online databases; online dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other online resources; past exam papers and more.
To get access from outside Birkbeck, you will need to be identified as a Birkbeck student by setting an institutional cookie on your computer.
You will need to login using your ITS username and password.
If you can't login to the eLibrary from outside Birkbeck, please contact the Library help desk or see this alternative login page.

Browse our subject guides which give an overview of the main resources for each subject area and details of your subject librarian.

Contact us