Key information for academic staff

Library, Archives and Learning Services (LALS)

The Library sits within LALS, all parts of which may be relevant to your teaching and research. Below is a preview of a visual summary of LALS, showing who the various teams are and what they can do for you as academic staff: we'd recommend you download the accessible PDF version here: LALS visual summary (PDF , 116kb) 

If you have any questions about the various teams in LALS and how they can help you, speak to your Faculty Librarian for more information. 

"Rapid IL" and obtaining articles we don't have at York 

If you require an article from a journal we don't subscribe to: this can be obtained very quickly (often within hours) via our Rapid Interlending service. This allows us to source the journal article from another library in PDF format. The key factor here is providing the ISSN number for the journal: this automates the whole process rather than relying on staff intervention, and ensures express delivery.

To request an article, use the form on our Tell Us What You Need page. To find the ISSN of the relevant journal, type the name of the journal itself (not the article) into the 'Title words' field of Library Hub Discover. 

We can also add PDFs of articles from journals to which we don't subscribe to your modules in the VLE, via our Reading Lists System. 

Reading Lists 

The Reading Lists system embedded in the VLE is how we know what you are teaching and what resources we need to acquire to support this, so it's essential that you use this. Add an article to your list and tag it for Digitisation if you wish us to try and source a PDF of something we don't otherwise have access to. 

Reading Lists allow you to create structured lists of items which can be easily accessed by your students; you can also request for print items to be digitised in accordance with copyright law. The Library will also try to purchase any items added to lists which we do not have in our collections.

Staff are encouraged to create the list yourselves; however if you'd like the Library to create the list for you, please fill in our online submission form. The Library offers training on creating and maintaining Reading Lists for all members of staff.

Read more on the Reading Lists guide

Requesting other materials 

If you would like the Library to purchase an item for a module you are teaching on, please add the item to the appropriate reading list; if it isn't already in stock, we'll automatically try and purchase it.

However you can suggest an item for the Library to purchase at any time, for your own research or simply because it's an item you consider we should own. Please be aware that if you wish to request new subscriptions or expensive research and teaching resources, we may not be able to add these at the current time.

There is more specific information on suggesting items for purchase via the link below:

Tell us what you need

Support from your Faculty Librarian

Your main contact within the Library is your Faculty Librarian (FL). They can help you to ensure that the Library holds the resources and offers the services you need in support of your teaching and research. FLs attend departmental meetings such as Board of Studies, and provide digital skills training and 1:1 support to students. 

Digital literacy refers to the ability to find, manage and create information in a digital environment. We can provide tailored training and advice within your modules and programmes to help students achieve these skills. Contact your Faculty Librarian to discuss the possibilities (or if you have any questions about the information on this page), or explore our Skills Guides for a range of materials which you can re-use in your teaching.

Additional specialist support for staff and postgraduate research students is provided by the Library's Open Research team.