Coronavirus and Library services

We are available 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday to support you.

Contact us by: 

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

Library staff are available Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm at the ground floor service desk to answer basic enquiries.

Meet with a librarian

A librarian can also meet you in person to discuss searching for literature and referencing for assignments, dissertations and exams.

Find your librarian and contact them to arrange. 

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

Contact a librarian to discuss.

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

LSE staff and students

Our building is open for LSE staff and students for the purpose of research and study. You do not need to book a space to enter.

Alumni, members of the public and other insitutions

Potential visitors needing to access archives or collections unique to LSE should apply using this form. It can take 10 working days for us to respond to applications. We advise you not to make travel bookings in advance.

COVID testing

All students, staff and visitors must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result taken and dated the day before or the day of accessing buildings on campus.

Further information about testing and access to the School's campus can be found on the School's central information pages.

Book a COVID-19 test

Library services and environment

• single use study spaces on all floors
• computer workstations and printers
• physical collections and borrowing available
• group study spaces are not available
• food is not allowed
• face coverings are required

LSE staff and students can borrow our open access print collections if they need to. 

• Use the self-service machines to borrow books.
• Chat to us if you have any problems with borrowing.
• You can also email us for assistance.

Return books using the self-service machines on the ground floor of the Library.

If you don't want to enter the Library, post them through the external drop box.

Contact us with any issues or concerns.

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

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

LSE staff and students

If you're a member of LSE you can contact us to let us know what your archives and special collections needs are and we will do our best to help. This could involve advice, scanning or an appointment to visit and use material in the Library.

Contact us for further information and to arrange access. 

Members of the public, other institutions and LSE alumni

Potential visitors needing to access archives or collections unique to LSE should apply using this form. It can take 10 working days for us to respond to applications. We advise you not to make travel bookings in advance.

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 our digitised archives on the legacy digital library and our new digital library. 
• Browse collections and freely download images from our Unsplash and Flickr pages.
• Explore Charles Booth’s London: Poverty Maps and Police Notebooks.

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

The Get It For Me service is for when you want articles, chapters or ebooks that are not available in our collection.

Find out how to use the Get It For Me service

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.