Borrowing & Membership
Joining the library
- Undergraduate, postgraduate and research students - New and returning students can use the library the day after they enrol. Your student ID card is your library card, which you need to borrow resources or print.
- Staff - Are required to complete a library membership form.
- External membership of the library - Anyone wishing to take out external membership must complete this application form and provide a photograph for an ID card. Please send a headshot to [email protected] with the subject line 'Photo for external membership'. You will be contacted when your library card is available for collection. Electronic databases are not available for use by external members due to licence restrictions.
- Alumni and Community Membership - Alumni and members of the local community can join USW Library for free. This would entitle you to borrow 2 items.
- SCONUL Access- Please refer to your own institution for further information about this scheme.
- Reciprocal borrowing scheme - operates between USW and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University.
All staff and students can borrow 25 items from USW. Undergraduates and postgraduates can borrow up to 5 items from Merthyr Tydfil with staff and researchers allowed up to 10. Alumni and Community Members can borrow 2 items. SCONUL Access [band A-C] enables you to borrow 6 items.
Returns can be done in person or by post. Treforest and Glyntaff libraries offer 24/7 external book drop boxes outside the libraries. Borrowed items renew automatically, providing it has not been requested and you have no outstanding late return charges. In addition postal returns are available, for more information, go to the Postal Loan and Scan and Deliver Service page.
Requests can be made on FINDit for loanable items from any of our campus libraries or for items that are out on loan.
This service is for USW students wanting to request a USW book by post or, to request a digital scan of a print-only copy of a USW journal article or book chapter to your email. For further information, go to the Postal Loan and Scan and Deliver Service page.
Unless your items are requested by someone else, your items will auto renew, so you won’t accrue late return charges if you forget to renew.
If someone else does request an item you have on loan, you will be notified via your student email and will be expected to return the item by its due date. Failure to return will result in the accrual of late return charges and the item will no longer renew. Your account may ultimately be affected if a recalled item is not returned. It is therefore very important that you read emails from us and that you check My Account regularly to ensure that your books are not needed by others, or have reached their maximum due date. All details of your loans can be found on your library account.
Late return charges:
| USW late return charges | £1.00 per day/part of a day up to a maximum of £20.00 per item |
| Merthyr College late return charges | If one of your items has come from Merthyr College the late return charge is 15p per day per item, up to a maximum of £10.00 per item. *Please note there are differing autorenewal policies for USW and Merthyr College items which may affect the late return charge rate. Further details can be found on our renewals page. |
| Inter-library Loan requests from taught students | First five requests per academic year are free, after that £3.00 per item for satisfied requests |
| Charge for lost, non-returned Inter-library loans | £182.80 per item (potentially higher if material is expensive to replace) . This is a British Library imposed charge. |
| Replacement costs for non-returned, lost or damaged books | There is a minimum standard charge of £25.00 per item for items which are out of print. For all others, the standard minimum of £25.00 or the full value of the item, whichever is the greater, will be charged as part of our debt recovery process. |
| Laptop loan late return charges | £1.00 per hour up to a maximum of £10.00 per day . Maximum charge of £100.00 per item. |
| Media equipment loan late return charges | £10.00 per day or part of, subject to a maximum charge of £100.00 per item. |
How to pay for late return charges?
Payment can be made in the following way:
- By using the online store. There is no minimum payment. You will be emailed a receipt upon payment.
Please note:
Prior to late return charges being applied a number of notifications are sent to your USW email to alert you that you cannot renew the loan of particular items:
- When another user places a request a notification is emailed to say that the item cannot be renewed and will need to be returned by the due date.
- 2 days before the due date a courtesy notice is sent.
- On the day the item is due back a notification is emailed to say the item is due back today.
- Overdue notices will be sent 7 days and 14 days after the due day to remind you haven’t returned the book and that late return charges are being accrued.
- If you fail to respond we will charge you a minimum of £25.00 or the full value of the item, whichever is the greater as part of our debt recovery process.
If you are experiencing difficulties returning items on time, please contact the Library as soon as possible.
Library Services are members of a number of co-operative library schemes. This gives access to higher education, further education, national and public libraries in the United Kingdom.
- SCONUL Access
- SCONUL Vacation Access
- National Library of Wales
- British Library Access
- Reciprocal Borrowing Scheme
- Hospital Libraries
Books4U - This is a borrowing scheme between participating public, further and higher education libraries. Any USW student is able to join the scheme via their local public library, as long as that library is a participating member of Books4U. You are able to request 2 books from any of the libraries listed, including USW, which would then be collected from, and returned to, your public library.
Update: British Library cyber incident
If you require items which are not available from our collections, you can access them via the inter-library loans request service (ILL) which is administered through the British Library.
Before submitting a request, please check FINDit as you cannot submit an ILL if we have the items in our collections.
Due to copyright restrictions we are unable to obtain an entire ebook but can place a request for physical copies of books.
How do I request an Inter-library Loan?
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Who can access the service?
- Students: up to 5 requests per week.
- Staff and research students: up to 10 requests per week.
Track your ILL requests through My Account on FINDit. When a request is available for collection, you will receive notification via your University e-mail account.
Is there a cost for the service?
Students can request up to 5 free requests per academic year. After this there is a charge of £3.00 for each completed request. This does not reflect the total cost of the transaction (£17.55), the remainder of which will be met by the Library. You will still be charged even if you do not collect your ILL (providing the request is met within our standard of 10 working days). The charge is added to your library account and should be paid as soon as possible via the online store. Please note that anyone with fines/charges of £10.00 or above is automatically blocked from using this service.
The ILL service is free of charge for USW staff and research students.
Secure Electronic Delivery (SED)
University staff, researchers & students can access articles from the British Library’s rich collections using the Secure Electronic Delivery (SED). Submitted requests are delivered to your desktop, and can accessed anywhere with an internet connection. Electronic delivery eliminates postal delays and offers you a fast and efficient service. Find out how to access the SED service.
Requesting theses
Theses may be requested directly via the British Library’s ETHOS – Electronic Theses Online Service (external link). Theses from participating institutions are available for full-text download or can be requested to be digitized before supply. The majority of institutions participating in EThOS have agreed to pay for digitisation of their theses. However, some institutions may not have the budget to fund the digitisation. Occasionally, users of EThOS are asked to fund digitisation of theses from these institutions themselves.
Free Online Resources
You can also access free legal open-access content, information provided by the British Library.
Contact us
Inter-library loans
tel: 01443 482638
e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]