While we try to hold as much relevant material in the Library as we can, there will be items you might need for study or research which we will need to borrow from other libraries for you. Most of our material is sourced from the British Library, but we can borrow from many academic libraries in the UK and abroad.

Please note we can only obtain PRINT copies of whole books due to legal reasons.  Library and Learning Services will also need to levy a charge of £13.30 for books not collected.

The guidelines for requesting electronic materials are as follows:

• We are able to request electronic copies of journal articles which will be sent directly to your email address
• We can request chapters from e-books which will be emailed directly to your email address

These items can be kept permanently

Some old or valuable items may be loaned as "Library use only", which means that the item would need to remain in the Library building for consultation

EThOS is the British Library's Electronic Thesis Online Service, providing  access to UK doctoral theses online. Most UK theses are now being made available online via the EThOS service which allows you to:

• search over 400,000+ theses records
• freely download the full-text of UK digitised theses
• order a download of theses from participating institutions

Anyone who wishes to view a UK thesis must first register for the service. If the thesis is already digitised, you will be able to order then download it; if not, you can request it via EThOS and you will be advised by the British Library about its availability.  For help in using EThOS see the British Library’s online guide

Please note Aston do not pay for theses to be digitised on EThOS

PQDT Open - Proquest Dissertations and theses open

With PQDT Open, you can read the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.