News and updates

Based on feedback from customers and users of EBSCO Discovery Service and Business Searching Interface, EBSCO will be updating the navigation experience for Articles Plus (our resource discovery tool) and EBSCOhost (Databases & Business Searching Interface) on the 7 July.

Primary changes include:

• Left-hand navigation panel moves to the top of the page and menu items regrouped (New Search, Research tools, Journals A-Z, etc).
• My Dashboard tools (Projects, Saved, Recent activity, Holds & checkouts, and Alerts) move to the MyEBSCO menu at the top left of the webpage. Users without a current personalised account will be prompted to create a My EBSCO account.
• Quick filters move from under the central main search bar area to the left-hand side of the page.
• Pagination will replace “Show more results” button on the results page.

New appearance

New appearance of user search interface

Pagination

Pagination at bottom of search results page replaces "Show more results"

There is an issue with accessing digitised readings from the Digital Content Store (DCS) made available via MOODLE.

This is being investigated by DCS to resolve the issue.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

UPDATE as of 11:45am: Readings are now available.

Articles Plus and EBSCO Host databases (see Databases) are currently not available due to a service issue.

EBSCO are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

UPDATE 24/06/26 AT 10.32AM:

The issue was resolved, both Articles Plus and databases hosted on the EBSCO platform should now be accessible.

Our library catalogue will not be available on Tue, 30 June from 10pm to 11pm while scheduled maintenance takes place.

The maintenance will last for one hour, 10pm - 11:00pm.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

On Monday, June 15th, beginning at 6:30am, EBSCO will perform scheduled maintenance on EBSCOhost platforms, and EBSCO Discovery Service, (Articles Plus).

The maintenance will be from 6:30am to 8:30am.

While these services will be available during this time, users may intermittently receive errors and be logged out. You will need to reauthenticate.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

From Friday 5 June until Wednesday 10 June, some building work will be taking place on the ground floor of the Library while we install a new entrance gate.

The Library will remain open but there will be some disruption to our services. Our Estates team will carry out some very loud work for a short period of time on Sunday 7 June.

We will direct our library users to enter the Library from the first floor; there will be signage available and staff at hand to help you.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The Academic Services Librarians will be running some information skills sessions as part of the Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp series, in June.

• 4 June 13:00-14:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: Finding sources for your lit review (book your place)
• 11 June 13:00-14:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: The literature review (book your place)
• 16 June 18:00-19:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: Finding sources for your lit review (book your place)
• 23 June 18:00-19:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: The literature review (book your place)

Alongside these sessions you can also book individual (online) one-to-support sessions with your Academic Service Librarians.

A scheduled maintenance of our Library catalogues will take place on 18 May at 9pm. This will last for up to six hours and is due to finish on 19 May at 3am.

During this time there will be no access to the library catalogues.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

A scheduled maintenance of our Library management system and catalogues will take place on 13 May at 11pm. This will last for up to eight hours and is due to finish on 14 May at 8am.

During this time there will be no access to the library catalogues.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Necessary infrastructure upgrade of Box of Broadcasts (BoB) platform will take place between 10 and 11am on the 16 April.

It is hoped that there will be minor to little disruption to accessing the service. However, the service should be considered to be at risk on Thursday 16 April.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Update 17/04/26 (09:07): Following an extended upgrade window, Box of Broadcasts is now accessible. It is in catch up mode and running a few days behind normal scheduling but should be caught up by next week.

The Academic Services Librarians will be running several information skills sessions throughout April to May of 2026.

Online sessions:

• 30 April 12:30-13:30 - Finding resources for your assignment, project or dissertation (book your place)
• 8 May 18:00-19:00 - Getting to grips with referencing (book your place)
• 13 May 17:00-18:00 - Using AI tools for literature searching and finding journal articles (book your place)
• 19 May 18:00-19:00 - CRAAP detection - evaluating sources (book your place)
• 28 May 13:00-14:00 - Getting to grips with referencing (book your place)

There is a scheduled maintenance of the Library catalogue from 8 April 10pm to 9 April 6am.

During this time Library catalogue will not be available.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Students and staff are encouraged to continue using IT and Library Services between the end of the Spring term (27 March) and the start of the Summer term (27 April). We are open every day with a small reduction in our opening hours during the Easter weekend.

During the Easter College closure, from 6pm on Wednesday 1 April to Tuesday 7 April inclusive, you will be able to contact the User Services helpdesk by email, ASK and telephone, as well as in person, throughout our opening hours.

Library Disability and Dyslexia Service study materials and appointments, and Academic Services Librarians will be unavailable during this time. For Interlibrary Loans, please check the Birkbeck Interlibrary Loans website. Requests submitted during the closure period are unlikely to be processed until the service reopens on Wednesday 8 April.

The click-and-post service will be unavailable between 2 and 7 April.

If you are planning to visit other libraries during the Easter break, please check their opening times and services available well in advance. Many libraries, if open at all, may not be processing new memberships during the break, so please ensure you join in good time beforehand.

Climate Festival 2026 - Upcycling Bookmark-making Workshop with Birkbeck's Climate Action Network, 19 February, 4.00 to 5.00pm, Birkbeck Library

Join Birkbeck’s Climate Action Network for a relaxed, creative hour of upcycling at their bookmark-making stand. In our world, we accumulate so many scrap materials that could be upcycled into something beautiful and useful. So, bring your spare fabrics, paper, pens, and plastics, and spend an hour making them into bookmarks which you can keep forever. Some craft materials and supplies will be provided, and the best three designs gets a £20 book voucher!

Book here.

The Academic Services Librarians will be running several information skills sessions throughout the first three months of 2026.

Online sessions:

• Getting the most out of Google Scholar, 19 January 16:30 – 17: 30 Book your place
• Get ready - Getting started with the Library, 20 January 17:00 –17:30 Book your place
• Get ready – Finding resources from your reading list, 21 January 17:00 –17:25 Book your place
• Get ready – Beyond your reading list, 22 January 17:00-17:30 Book your place
• Finding resources for your assignments, 24 January 10:00-10:55 Book your place
• Using AI tools for literature searching and finding journal articles, 4 February 18:00-19:00 Book your place
• Finding resources for your dissertation, 12 February 16:00-17:00 Book your place
• Finding resources for your assignments, 21 February 10:30-11:30 Book your place
• Introduction to referencing and Zotero, 21 February 11:45-12:45 Book your place
• Beyond your library: navigating Senate House and the British Library, 26 February 16:45-17:30 Book your place
• Making the most out of Westlaw UK, 27 February 16:30-17:30 Book your place
• Finding and using news sources, 4 March 16:45-17:30 Book your place
• Making the most out of Lexis+, 9 March 16:30-17:30 Book your place
• Evaluating information resources, 10 March 16:45-17:30 Book your place
• Finding resources for your assignments, 16 March 16:30-17:30 Book your place
• Getting started with MindManager, online mind-mapping software, 18 March 12:00-12:45 Book your place

In-person sessions (Birkbeck main building):

• Evaluating Sources, 24 January 11:00-11:55 Book your place
• Managing your references and using Zotero, 24 January 12:00-12:55 Book your place
• Finding the best peer-reviewed research with Scopus, 27 January 18:00-21:00 Book your place

Alongside these sessions, you can also book individual (online) one-to-one support sessions or make use of the Drop-in sessions Monday to Friday at 12.30 – 13:30 with no booking required. Click on "Drop-in session" to join, where you will be held in the lobby until the librarian on duty is available.

We are pleased to announce that we have access to a new resource, Digital Theatre+, which will be very useful for drama and theatre studies students, but will be useful for broader studies too, and can be used by any student or staff member.

Some of the advantages of Digital Theatre+ include:

• Access to viewing hundreds of contemporary theatre performances
• Searchability by theme and theatrical form, and instant ability to cross-reference multiple performances of the same text
• Extra material, including play texts and study guides

Digital Theatre+ is made available initially for a six-month trial period, but we hope to extend that if it is well used.