Coronavirus and Library services

We have made the following changes to borrowing through the end of term and over the Christmas period. This provides greater flexibility to students and staff who may not be on campus throughout this time:

• Course Collection loans will be extended from Thursday 3 December to Monday 11 January.
• Recall requests will be suspended during this period.

We are available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday to support you.

Contact us by: 

• Email
• Library Chat (IM)
• Twitter
• Facebook

If you need help using the Library and its resources, you should contact your department librarian first. They can provide support remotely.

However, you can book an in-person appointment with a Librarian if you need help when you're in the Library. They can assist you with:

• finding the resources on your reading list
• finding resources for your assignments
• finding data and other specialist information.
• citing and referencing enquiries

Sessions can last up to 30 minutes and will take place in LSE LIFE.

Contact a librarian to discuss.

• You can also contact specialists on publishing, data management and research impact. Explore our research support guides.

The Library building is now open for LSE staff and students.

To enter the Library you need to:

• book a study space
• have a class 
• pick up a token to browse and borrow
• be visiting LSE LIFE

Check our opening hours

Should you visit?

• Only visit to use a pre-booked study space, attend a class, visit LSE LIFE (when staffed) or to browse and borrow books.
• Don’t visit if you have any symptoms of COVID-19.

When you are in the Library

• Wear a face covering at all times.
• Wash your hands regularly.
• Maintain social distancing.
• Follow the signposted one-way system.
• Only use the lifts where necessary.
• Only use a study space if you have booked it in advance.
• Use our wipes to clean study desks before and after use.

Emergency situations

• Evacuate if there is a fire alarm without waiting for further instruction. The evacuation point is outside the Saw Swee Hock building.
• Call 999 in any life-threatening situation. (111 if not life-threatening).
• Call LSE Security on 020 7955 6904.

Welfare 

Remember to take regular breaks and seek help if you have any issues with your welfare. Contact the Student Wellbeing Service.

Reporting issues

If you come across any issues while in the Library, contact us. 

LSE staff and students can now browse and borrow our open access print collections.

Find out how to access the Library to browse and borrow books

• Return books by leaving them on the trolleys in the Escape area just before the entrance turnstiles.
• Items will remain on your account until a 72 hour quarantine has passed and will then be discharged shortly after by staff. 
• Use the external drop-box for book returns when the Library building is closed.
• You cannot use the self-service machine to return books.

We have been able to secure additional resources to help you with your online learning, research and teaching. 

New and improved resources for LSE staff and students

• JSTOR - enhanced access to all JSTOR Archive and Primary Source collections covering all areas of social sciences and humanities.
• Coronavirus Research Database.
• S&P Capital IQ - financial data, analytics, and research.
• Elsevier - Novel Coronavirus Information Center.

Access a range of resources wherever you are in the world; including JSTOR, Project Muse, Sage Journals.

Find out about online resources for LSE Alumni and sign up for access

Free/Open Access resources 

• CORE - The world’s largest collection of open access research papers 
• Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) 
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) 
• JSTOR Open Access ebooks 

COVID-19 research available to all

• JSTOR - 26 journal archives in Public Health
• Oxford University Press
• Royal Society
• Taylor and Francis
• Wiley Online Library 
• Brill
• Cochrane Library
• Digital Science
• Emerald
• Microbiology Society
• MIT Press - Pandemics and Epidemiology
• Sage Journals
• Springer Nature

Due to the current situation with coronavirus, our archives and special collections can't be accessed.

We are able to offer a limited scanning service for small quantities of material from our archives and special collections. For more information, please get in touch.

In the meantime, you can still access our digitised collections, or explore our collection highlights to find out more about our archives and special collections.

Our team of curators can help you according to their area of expertise.

You can also send us any general enquiries, and we'll do our best to help. 

Online exhibitions and collections

• Take a look at our Google Arts and Culture online exhibits. Including stories of the women's suffrage movement, and LGBTQ+ activism.
• Explore the Women’s Rights Collection and other digitised archives and books on LSE Digital Library. 
• Browse collections and freely download images from our Unsplash and Flickr pages. 
• Access thousands of pages in our Economic History Digital Collection.
• Explore Charles Booth’s London: Poverty Maps and Police Notebooks.

If you can't access something that you need, let us know.

• Recommend we add an ebook to our collections.

We aren't able to order print titles at the moment, but if what you want is available electronically then we should be able to get you access.

If you can't access something that you need, let us know.

• Request an article or chapter through the Interlending service. 

We aren't able to order paper copies of articles or chapters at the moment.

We are aware that in the current circumstances some researchers aren't able to access some of the secure datasets they need for their research (eg ONS data). The Library, Research and Innovation and Cyber Security are working together to identify the researchers affected and investigate potential solutions. 

If you are facing issues for your research projects, please get in touch via datalibrary@lse.ac.uk in the first instance. We can then work with you and data providers to provide support. 

 As students and researchers are no longer able to conduct face-to-face data collection, new guidance has been produced to provide advice and tips for doing online data collection.

Please see our guides for:

• undergraduate and master's students

• postgraduate research students and researchers

Unfortunately we are unable to give remote access to Bloomberg; however, you can use S&P Capital IQ to access company data.  

Register as a new user with your LSE email address to access the site. 

If it doesn't have what you need, email datalibrary@lse.ac.uk and be as specific as you can about your data requirements so they can advise.