You will be given your University card by the People and Organisational Effectiveness (POE) department on your first day. Please see the University Card webpage or contact hr@lancaster.ac.uk if you have any queries.

If you start your course at the beginning of the academic year, you will be given your University card as part of the University registration process.

Please consult the Registration Guide for further details and information about the registration process.

As a Lancaster Graduate, you can use selected Library e-resources, and join as a member for access to lending services.

Please fill out our Community Membership form to join or renew your membership if you would like to borrow print material.

Databases

Lancaster University Library is pleased to provide the University’s Alumni with remote access to the following resources for personal, non-commercial use.

• JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive. JSTOR contains back issues of thousands of academic journals in a wide variety of disciplines. Issues are available both as images and as text, making searching possible both within each title and across the database. Back issues generally extend back to volume 1 and forward to within the last 3 to 5 years depending on the title.
• SAGE Journals. SAGE is the world’s 5th largest journal publisher. The SAGE portfolio includes more than 900 journals spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Technology and Medicine, and more than 400 are published on behalf of learned societies and institutions.
• Project MUSE. A leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community around the world. Currently, Project MUSE has over 674 journals from 125 publishers.
• Henry Stewart Talks Business and Management Collection. Contains over 1,000 specially prepared, animated, online, multi-media lectures and case studies by experts from commerce, industry, the professions and academia for universities, business schools, colleges and continuing professional development. There are over 850 contributing editors, speakers and case study presenters and more than 30,000 informative slides.
• Springer Journals. Springer Link provides access to journals published by Springer. Subject coverage includes life sciences, chemical sciences, environmental sciences, geosciences, computer science, mathematics, medicine, physics & astronomy, engineering and economics.
• EBSCO Business Source Alumni Edition. Provides access to more than 1,200 business magazines and journals, including top management journals such as Fortune magazine, New Statesman, Time magazine and Bloomberg Businessweek. Email alumni@lancaster.ac.uk for Business Source access details.

To access these you need to log in to the alumni website. If you have not yet registered to use this, please click the "New Registration" link below the login form.

Not all publishers allow you to access their resources from your location, however, we have created an open-access libguide which provides useful links and information about good quality free and Open Access content.

Other Recommended Databases (freely available)

• Google Scholar. Google’s search engine for scholarly works
• DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals. DOAJ offers free access to the full text of thousands of journals covering the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and also provides access to indexes in these subject areas, including dissertations and theses.
• DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books. DOAB offers free access to the full text of over 2,500 academic peer-reviewed books from 94 publishers
• PubMed. PubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites.

Borrowing materials

The Library is open to the public; please contact us if you would like to join to borrow items. As an Alumni, you are entitled to borrow up to ten items from the Library. Please see the Rules for using the Library.

As a Member of the Public, SCONUL access Member, former Lancaster University Staff, member of an Associate College, and more, you are welcome to visit the Library, to borrow, as well as consult items in the building.

If you wish to borrow, you can join the Library as a Community Member free of charge. Please read the Rules for using the Library. Please fill out our Community Membership form to join or renew your membership if you would like to borrow print material.

When you first visit the library you will need to provide up-to-date official proof of your address, such as a driving licence or utilities bill, and College or SCONUL access confirmation where appropriate, for your membership to be activated.

Members of staff attached to NHS hospitals or PCTs in Lancashire or Cumbria are eligible to join under the Passport 2 Partnership (P2P) scheme free of charge.

A card for the Library can be issued between 8.00am and 21.30pm at any day during Term Time. Vacation hours may differ, please check the opening hours before you visit. Please bring a valid NHS identity card. Please fill out our Community Membership form to join or renew your membership if you would like to borrow print material.

Not all publishers allow Open Access to their resources, however, we have created an Open Access Libguide which provides useful links and information about good quality free and Open Access content.