The Library for New Staff

Hello and welcome to all of our new (and long-standing) staff members here at Edinburgh Napier University! We would like to introduce you to as well as familiarise you with the facilities, resources and services which our three campus libraries have to offer you, and how we can help and benefit you as well. Our libraries are not just for students of Edinburgh Napier University! All members of staff also have access to our books, a majority of our library spaces and PCs. Let us walk you through what we have to offer…

Physical and Online Resources…

We have a vast range of physical resources and online material which students and staff can borrow and access: books, DVDs, articles, journals and newspapers, to name a few. You can borrow physical books and resources from us using your staff card – they will then automatically renew for up to four months unless they are recalled to fulfil another patron request. You will be notified via email if this is the case and have seven days to return your item or items from when this email is sent. Good news is that when you do need to return a book to us, you can drop it off at any campus which is nearest or most convenient for you, regardless of which campus you got the book from. You can drop it off in our return boxes and scan it through as a return by using our self-service kiosks. Do not worry if, for any reason, you forget to do this, though – our library staff process every book found in our return bins, so your item will be fully registered as a return regardless!

Edinburgh Napier University libraries have institutional subscriptions to a variety of academic databases, journal articles and webpages offering a range of credible research articles and papers. You can access these by signing into LibrarySearch via your staff account. If the book or article you are looking for is available online, this will come up in the item record when you search for it – when you go into this record, it will then show you an individual or range of links to databases or webpages from which you can access the desired resource, often in full text.

Inter-Library Loans Service…

It may be the case sometimes that we do not have access to the specific book or article you are looking for – not to worry! Staff are also able to use our Inter Library Loan service to request a book or article if it is the case that we do not have access to the desired item or have it in our library stock. The form for requesting a book or article as an Inter-Library Loan can be found in LibrarySearch and once, we have processed the form you have completed, we aim to have it ready for you to access or borrow through us within 3-15 working days. However, delivery cannot always be guaranteed within a specific time frame. Journal articles, which are often digital, are emailed to you.

Training and Events Calendar…

Our Training and Events Calendar is another resource we have which is not just available for students! In this calendar, we have a range of advertised and often bookable training events and workshops which staff and students can enrol in. Most of these advertised events are usually library-related – these include and are not limited to our Getting Started with the Library Sessions, library help sessions for specific schools and referencing workshops covering referencing styles such as APA 7th as well as software such as EndNote and Mendeley. Some advertised sessions also cover other aspects of academia, research and technologies within Edinburgh Napier University. These sessions are often run by our subject librarians but are sometimes run by staff in other disciplines and departments such as our academic skills team or IT teams.

Our Library and IT Helpdesks…

Got a question about our library resources, services or databases? Or something IT-related? Edinburgh Napier University staff can come by our helpdesks in each campus library if you need help with any of these specific kinds of queries. Our Opening Hours can be found in our My Napier webpages. You can also contact us via email by emailing library@napier.ac.uk or by phoning 01314553500.

By Rachel Downie