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About the SIA London library: Info for faculty

Practical info about using the London library, and about what we offer

   
Osman Hamdi Bey, The Scholar, 1878. Oil on canvas (45.5 x 90 cm). Private collection.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Borrowing

All members of faculty can borrow up to 15 items at a time, for four weeks each. The only exception is that key texts for courses are only available for three day loan. These are clearly marked in the online catalogue and by an orange sticker on the spine.


The following cannot be borrowed:

  • dissertations
  • sales catalogues
  • reference-only books (marked in the catalogue and with a sticker on the spine)
  • journals and newspapers


The same borrowing rights apply to all SIA staff, including interns here for three months or more. Interns here for shorter periods may use the library for reference only.

You can renew your books by emailing library@sia.edu or phone.

Please email library@sia.edu or phone us if you would like to reserve an item that is currently on loan to someone else.

 

Reading lists

When whole books are designated as required reading for courses, the library aims to hold at least one copy.

 

The library does not buy a copy of every book designated as optional reading, but aims to have a good proportion of these.

 

When articles or chapters are designated as set reading, we aim to make them available online via Canvas.

The Institute's key legal obligations when adding copyrighted material to Canvas are as follows:  

 

Who can upload?

  • if the material is published, only library staff can upload scans or PDFs
  • this includes scans derived from freely-available websites, and published text which has been re-typed

 

What material can be scanned?

  • we can only scan material either published in the UK, or from countries, or individual publishers, which have opted into the relevant copyright licence agreement
  • only material owned by SIA can be scanned

 

How much can be scanned?

  • we can scan 10%, or one chapter of a book (plus notes), whichever is greater, per programme unit or course 
  • we can scan 10% or one whole article (whichever is the greater) from a single issue of a journal, per programme unit or course 

 

Is this checked?

  • the library must keep records of all scanned material and submit this information annually to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA).

 

For further details, see the website of the Copyright Licensing Agency.

 

 

Research instruction: for students and faculty

The library offers:

  • general research assistance in the library, on a drop-in basis
  • classroom sessions near the beginning of a course, principally introducing the library's online resources
  • classroom sessions about MA dissertation research, if requested
  • individual appointments for advice on dissertation research, available once students have given their dissertation presentations

 

Please do contact the library if there is a session you would like the librarians to offer to your students: perhaps using a specific database, accessing books in other libraries, or referencing. These could be stand-alone sessions or incorporated into a class you are running.

 

The librarians are happy to offer one-to-one or group appointments for faculty, for example focusing on one or more of our online resources.