Borrowing, hold requests and your library account 

If you are studying a distance learning course and you are based in the UK you can borrow books via our postal loan service.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer this service to students based outside of the UK.

To register for this service, please Contact the Library stating your name, your LJMU username and distance learning course.

Once we confirm your details we will activate postal loans on your library account and let you know when this has been done.

• Take the book you want to borrow to one of our self-service machines
• Press Borrow Items on the touch screen
• Tap your student card on the card reader
• Place the book(s) on the self-service machine
• Screen displays the title(s) of the book(s)
• Press Done
• Select your preferred receipt option

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Your books will be automatically renewed unless:

• your account expires
• you have long overdue books
• your account is 'blocked' and LJMU need to contact you
• someone else has requested the items.

If we cannot renew your books for any of the reasons above, we will send an email requesting that you return them.

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You can borrow a book for seven days, after this time the book will be automatically renewed unless it is requested by another borrower, if this happens you will receive an email to let you know that you must return the book.

Inter-library loans usually have a due date longer than seven days and do not automatically renew. Please ensure you check the due date of your inter-library loan and return it by that date. You will receive an email once the due date is reached reminding you to return the item.

• Undergraduates and postgraduates on taught programmes may borrow 20 items
• Staff and researchers may borrow 30 items
• SCONUL Access borrowers may borrow 5 items
• External borrowers may borrow 5 items

Please let us know if you lose a book or if it is stolen. We will charge you the replacement cost. If your book has been stolen, please provide a Crime Reference number and the charges will be waived. Please Contact the Library if you need to tell us about a lost or stolen book.

If your overdue book is requested by another borrower you will receive an email to your LJMU email account to let you know that the book has been recalled. Any books still kept overdue by 15 days will be made 'lost' by the system and the replacement cost of the book will be charged to your account.

You can check where the items you have requested are being held by logging in to your library account via Library Discover.

Select Sign in at the top right of the screen and enter your LJMU username and password if prompted to do so.

Select your name and select My Requests from the drop-down menu, this will open the Requests tab in your Library Account dashboard, where you can see the title of your requested book as well as where it is being held and for how long.

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How to place a hold request

You can reserve standard loan items via Library Discover:

• Search for the book you require on Discover
• Select the title of the book in the results list
• Sign in to your account with your LJMU username and password
• Select the blue Place Request link
• Select a Pickup location from the dropdown list
• If you are eligible for postal loans remember to select Personal Delivery - Home Address
• Select the green Request link

Collecting your hold request

We will contact you by email when the book is ready to collect. When you receive the email go to the appropriate library (shown in the email) and find the book on the hold shelf using the last 6 digits of your barcode. 

You will need to issue the book to yourself using the self-service issue machine before you leave the library. For details, see How do I borrow a book?

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• Undergraduate students may place 10 reservations
• Taught postgraduate students may place 10 reservations
• Researchers and Staff may place 20 reservations
• SCONUL and external borrowers may place 5 reservations

You can check which items you have on loan by logging in to your library account via Library Discover.

Select Sign in and type in your LJMU username and password if prompted.

Select your name and select My Loans from the drop-down menu.

Your loaned items will display on your dashboard along with the date that they are due back. If you select the drop-down arrow on the right of the individual titles, you will reveal further information about each item.

To see previous and historic loans, select the drop-down arrow next to Loans and choose Previous and historic loans from the menu.

You can also Contact the Library to check your library account.

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You can access your library account via Library Discover.

Select the Sign in link and type in your LJMU username and password if prompted.

Select your name and select My Library Account from the drop-down menu.

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Current students and staff

Current students can pay Library charges by logging into the Virtual Purse and selecting Transfer from the menu.

Please note: Lost book fees cannot be paid in this way without staff intervention; you will need to speak to a member of Library staff first so that they can enable you to do this.

Graduates and external library users

Students who have left the university and still have outstanding library charges can pay through LJMU Online Payments:

• Select Online purchases
• Select the Product Catalogue dropdown
• Select Academic Registry
• Select Library Charges
• Add the amount you want to pay and Add to Basket
• Select the Shopping Basket, then Proceed to Checkout
• Login or Register depending on whether you have used the online payments service previously.

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We do not charge library fines for overdue books, however, if your overdue book is requested by another borrower we will block your borrowing rights, until the book is returned.