As well as all the resources available to you from the University Library the following services provide access to a wide variety of other scholarly material.

Interlibrary loans - If you are unable to find the materials you need from our subscribed or open access resources, researchers have an allowance of up to 65 items each academic year accessible from our interlibrary loans service.

• Access to research at public libraries - Access to Research gives free, walk-in access to over 15 million academic articles in participating public libraries across the UK.
• EThOS - The British Library's Electronic theses Online Service offers an open access single point repository of theses produced by UK higher education institutions. Note that this service is currently not working following a cyber attack in October 2023. The aim is to relaunch EThOS as early as possible. In the meantime, You can access the metadata for thesis held in this database.  You can also use the British Library's online catalogue to search for digital doctoral theses held in UK institutional repositories. From the British Library catalogue's simple search page, you can 'refine your search' to filter by Resource Type 'Theses' or on the advanced search page, select the Material Type 'Theses'. When you have found a document of interest, click on the title to view the full details. If a digital doctoral thesis is held in a UK institutional repository, there will be an 'Available online' link under the title. Please contact the British Library if you have a query about a specific thesis that is not currently available online.
• British Library for Researchers - Collections and support for academic researchers.
• CORE (COnnecting REpositories) provides a comprehensive bibliographic database of the world’s scholarly literature, collecting and indexing research from repositories and journals.
• DOAJ - The Directory of Open Access Journals offers free, full-text, peer reviewed, scholarly journals covering all subjects.
• Google Scholar can be a good resource to locate published research. You can even link it to the University of Sunderland Library to know what is available in our library when searching Google Scholar. 
• Open DOAR - The Directory of Academic Open Access Research repositories from around the world. This tool allows you to find the research repository for a specific research institution. 

There may be times when you want to visit other academic libraries. Please see the schemes mentioned below on how to access libraries at other educational institutions across the UK.

SCONUL Access

We are part of the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL). SCONUL Access is a scheme which allows many university library users to study spaces or books and journals at other libraries which belong to the scheme. Visit the SCONUL website to submit your application. Join the SCONUL Access scheme.

You will usually need a campus card to visit other university libraries. Local partner college students and UK-based distance learners can request a campus card be posted to them.

Please note that reading for Sunderland Online programmes is provided entirely online. Therefore students on these programmes are not eligible to join the SCONUL Access Scheme.

Using WiFi at other institutions

University of Sunderland is a member of eduroam which means you can WiFi is available for staff and students who are visiting other participating institutions. You will need your University of Sunderland User ID and password to log in. Please speak to the staff at the library you are visiting for more information.

Using eduroam at another institution.

The British Library

The British Library is the national library of the UK. They receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland. You can request to use their Reading Rooms and view items in their collections. See how to get your free reader pass.

Archives and special collections

Many libraries and museums have archives and special collections. Please contact individual institutions beforehand to see if you are eligible to visit. The below search services can help you locate material in UK and Irish academic, national & specialist libraries:

• JISC Library Hub -  supports researchers and information professionals by enabling them to search the catalogues of over 90 libraries at once, including the UK national libraries, University libraries, and specialist libraries.
• Archives Hub - Use the Archives Hub to save time and search the archives of over 300 UK institutions at once for the locations of archive material.