Help using the Catalogue
How to find books, journals, and other items
- Visit the .
- Refine your search (to ebooks, or pamphlets, etc) by selecting a document type in the sidebar on the left hand side of the results list.
- For a specific search, you can use .
- If the book or journal is not held by Senate House Library you may wish to search
Understanding your search results
After you submit a search you will see a list of results:
- Click on a listing to see more information about it.
- Check that it is ‘Available’ in the Library (to ensure that another reader has not taken it out).
- Take a note of: where the item is located, the name of the Collection it is in, what floor that collection is on, and the item’s shelf mark / classmark (so that you know where to find it on the shelf).
Floor plans are displayed around the Library and on the website.
What if the item isn’t on the shelf?
- Check that you are looking in the right place. Most of our books are arranged using a case sensitive classification system called Bliss — upper case letters are generally shelved before the lower case ones.
- Someone may be reading it in the Library.
- It may be in the re-shelving area.
- If the Catalogue says it’s been ‘Recently Returned’ it might be behind the Service Desk on the 4th Floor. Ask staff at the main service desk for assistance.
Finding Articles
- You can search multiple journals at once using Senate House Library’s for full-text articles and article citations.
- is a good general resource.
- Back runs of journals can be searched on or the .
- For subject specific electronic resources check the complete list on our platform.
- Search across multiple electronic resources simultaneously on or .
Databases
A complete and searchable A - Z list of databases is provided on our platform.
The Fetch Service
Some areas of the Library are not open for Library members to browse. These areas are called ‘the stack’ or the 'Offsite Store'. Items in these areas are requested via the Catalogue and fetched for you by staff. You collect them from the main Service Hall. Request items via the Fetch Service.
If you have a question about finding items in the Library please visit the Service Desk on the 4th floor, or use the Library Live Chat service. Library staff will be happy to help you,