News and updates

If you need a laptop for the day, you will now be able to borrow one from the laptop loan cabinet located on the ground floor of the library. The laptop loan service will be open next week from the 8 September.

Staff at the Helpdesk can assist you if you have any questions about the service.

Laptops and chargers must be returned by the close of the library at 11.45pm.

The Academic Services Librarians and the Library Disability and Dyslexia Service will be running information skills sessions throughout September to October of 2026, as part of the “Get Ready” series of events.

Online:

• 09 September 2026, 17:00-17:30 Get ready: Finding and using books and ebooks (book your place)
• 14 September 2026, 12:00-12:45 Get ready: Introduction to online mind-mapping with MindManager (book your place)
• 14 September 2026, 17:00-17:30 Get ready: Finding journal articles (book your place)
• 21 September 2026, 17:00-17:30 Get ready: Finding and using books and ebooks (book your place)
• 22 September 2026, 17:00-17:30 Get ready: Finding journal articles (book your place)
• 22 September 2026, 18:00-19:00 Get ready: Evaluating sources workshop (book your place)
• 22 September 2026, 18:00-18:45 Get ready: Introduction to online mind-mapping with MindManager (book your place)
• 12 October 2026, 17:00-17:30 Get ready: Finding and using books and ebooks (book your place)
• 14 October 2026, 17:00-17:30 Get ready: Finding journal articles (book your place)

In person:

• 28 September - 15 October 2026, 17:15-17:35 Get ready: Get to know your library tour (book your place)

A scheduled maintenance of the library catalogue will take place on Wednesday 16 September from 11pm, for one hour.

During this time the catalogue will not be available.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

From the 2 September to download any eBook from ProQuest you will need to install the Ebook Central Reader App.

The Ebook Central Reader App replaces Adobe Digital Editions (ADE); ADE will no longer be supported for ProQuest Ebooks.

• The APP can be installed across six devices and involves putting in a code generated from ProQuest once the app is installed on your device.
• Any active loans will sync to the new app.
• The Ebook Central Reader App will be deployed on all Birkbeck desktops and in the College Portal on the 1 September 2026.
• Students will need to install the app on their own device(s).
• Guidance on how to install and use the app can be found in our Ebook LibGuide.

Maintenance will be undertaken on the network infrastructure of our library catalogue environment from 11pm 25 August to 4am 26 August. During this time the catalogue, CloudSource and CloudSource Plus will not be available.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

From Friday 31 July Study Support Room bookings will be made through LibCal.

Students will continue to be able to book up to three hours per day, and should check-in within 15 minutes of arrival. Booking links will be available via the Library Disability webpage; details of how to check-in will be emailed with every booking.

For further information contact the Library Disability And Dyslexia Support service.

We have been made aware there is an issue with both Articles Plus, our resource discovery software, and EBSCOhost new user interface.

This is being investigated by EBSCO engineers and they hope to have this resolved as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

UPDATE 14/07/26: The issue has now been resolved.

There is an issue with accessing digitised readings from the Digital Content Store (DCS) made available via MOODLE.

This is being investigated by DCS to resolve the issue.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

UPDATE as of 11:45am: Readings are now available.

Articles Plus and EBSCO Host databases (see Databases) are currently not available due to a service issue.

EBSCO are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

UPDATE 24/06/26 AT 10.32AM:

The issue was resolved, both Articles Plus and databases hosted on the EBSCO platform should now be accessible.

Our library catalogue will not be available on Tue, 30 June from 10pm to 11pm while scheduled maintenance takes place.

The maintenance will last for one hour, 10pm - 11:00pm.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

On Monday, June 15th, beginning at 6:30am, EBSCO will perform scheduled maintenance on EBSCOhost platforms, and EBSCO Discovery Service, (Articles Plus).

The maintenance will be from 6:30am to 8:30am.

While these services will be available during this time, users may intermittently receive errors and be logged out. You will need to reauthenticate.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

From Friday 5 June until Wednesday 10 June, some building work will be taking place on the ground floor of the Library while we install a new entrance gate.

The Library will remain open but there will be some disruption to our services. Our Estates team will carry out some very loud work for a short period of time on Sunday 7 June.

We will direct our library users to enter the Library from the first floor; there will be signage available and staff at hand to help you.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The Academic Services Librarians will be running some information skills sessions as part of the Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp series, in June.

• 4 June 13:00-14:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: Finding sources for your lit review (book your place)
• 11 June 13:00-14:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: The literature review (book your place)
• 16 June 18:00-19:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: Finding sources for your lit review (book your place)
• 23 June 18:00-19:30 Postgraduate Dissertation Bootcamp: The literature review (book your place)

Alongside these sessions you can also book individual (online) one-to-support sessions with your Academic Service Librarians.

Based on feedback from customers and users of EBSCO Discovery Service and Business Searching Interface, EBSCO will be updating the navigation experience for Articles Plus (our resource discovery tool) and EBSCOhost (Databases & Business Searching Interface) on the 7 July.

Primary changes include:

• Left-hand navigation panel moves to the top of the page and menu items regrouped (New Search, Research tools, Journals A-Z, etc).
• My Dashboard tools (Projects, Saved, Recent activity, Holds & checkouts, and Alerts) move to the MyEBSCO menu at the top left of the webpage. Users without a current personalised account will be prompted to create a My EBSCO account.
• Quick filters move from under the central main search bar area to the left-hand side of the page.
• Pagination will replace “Show more results” button on the results page.

New appearance

New appearance of user search interface

Pagination

Pagination at bottom of search results page replaces "Show more results"