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.
  • Access for members of the public - We’re pleased to welcome members of the public aged 18 or over to use the University of South Wales (USW) libraries for reference and study purposes. Access is subject to space availability and local access arrangements at each library, and you may be asked to provide proof of age when visiting. Please note that, to ensure our libraries continue to meet the needs of our students, public access may be limited during busy periods, such as examinations and peak teaching weeks. Members of the public aged 18 or over can also join the library.
  • Children and young people - Children and young people under the age of 18 are welcome to visit USW libraries when accompanied by a responsible adult. To help us maintain a safe and supportive environment for everyone, under 18s must be:
    • Accompanied at all times, and
    • Supervised at all times by a current USW student or member of staff
  • External membership of the library - Anyone wishing to take out external membership must complete this application form. 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. 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.

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. 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. All details of your loans can be found on your library account.

  • Overdue notices will be sent 7 days and 14 days after the due day to remind you haven’t returned the book.
  • If you fail to respond we will charge you a minimum of £25.00 or the full value of the item.

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.

Public 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?

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]