Information for Researchers
Whether you are a research student or a member of staff conducting research, the Library can help you with your information requirements. We have a member of staff responsible for liaison with researchers to offer advice and assistance.
Your initial contact is the Research Liaison Specialist Shirley Ward, or you can get in touch with your own Subject Librarian|.
The following information about the services of the Library may also be useful:
Your library representative for researchers is Shirley Ward.
01204 903553 
Contact Shirley via email|
Clicking a link below will scroll the page to the relevant section.
General Information
Other Useful Information
Borrowing Library Materials
You will be able to borrow 15 items from the Library at any one time. We have various loan periods (for example 1 week, 3 week, 3 day) and some items which can be consulted within the library only (e.g. print journals, reference books and some popular text books).
Fines are as follows:
3 week loans
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10p per day for first 2 weeks, then 25p per day
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1 week loans
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10p per day for first week, then 25p per day
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3 day loans
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50p per day
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1 day loans
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£1.00 per day
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Desk Reference
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50p per hour
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High Demand Desk Reference
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£5 per hour or part of hour
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Inter-library loans
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50p per day
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High demand
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£5.00 per hour
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Inter-library Loans
If there is some material (book or journal article) which you want, and we do not have it in our stock, we can obtain it from another Library for you. This service provides copies of books (which you can collect from our Library), or journal articles (which will be sent to you).
As a Research Student you are allowed 15 free requests for each year you are registered with the University of Bolton. These can be submitted at any time during your research period.
If you use up this free quota you will then be charged £2 per request.
Visit the Inter-library loans web pages|
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Plagiarism
You should be aware of what plagiarism is, so that you can avoid it in your writing. There is a lot of information on this subject, and guidance about how to cite and reference correctly in BISSTO (Bolton Interactive Study Skills Tutorial Online)
The university regulations on plagiarism can be found at:
The booklet 'Cite me, I'm yours' contains more information about referencing and citing—this is available via the Library website, and can be purchased at the Library Information Desk.
If you need any more help, please contact your Subject Librarian or Shirley Ward.
| Contact Shirley Ward via email| 01205 903553
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Enquiries, Help and Contacts
Library Resources
Workbooks, cribsheets, study skills guides, video tutorials and other resources to help you in your studies
Browse our current range of Library Resources|
BISSTO
(Bolton Interactive Study Skills Tutorial Online)
BISSTO is an easily digested set of tutorials designed to provide all the study skills you need to make the most of your time at the University of Bolton.
Click here to access the BISSTO web site| 
Subject Librarians
If you require help during your course, please contact your Subject Librarian|
General Enquiries
Please do not hesitate to contact us, should you need help or have any questions regarding our services.
List of phone numbers and email links|
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Printed Materials
The Library catalogue provides bibliographic information on all the materials (including journals, books, theses, videos and DVDs) that are held in the Library.
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Electronic Resources
The Library has a variety of electronic resources available to support your research. You will need to log into OpenAthens (on the Library web page) with your University username and password in order to access most of them.
Remember that many of these electronic services can be used off-campus and at all hours of the day.
Online Databases
Online Databases help you find articles on specific topics. Some give you author, title and source details (an indexing database), some give you author, title, source and an abstract
(an abstracting database), and some give you access to the full article (a full text database). You will need to become familiar with how much information each different database will give you.
Electronic Resources - Databases|
eJournals
The Library has access to a large number of Electronic Journals on a range of subjects. These can be accessed via the Library catalogue or the e-journals portal.
Electronic Resources - eJournals portal|
Electronic Books
Electronic Books offer a different way of accessing text book type information. The University of Bolton has access to over 7,000 titles and this number continues to grow. Most can be accessed via the Library catalogue. You can also search on the suppliers' home pages for particular items.
Electronic Resources - eBooks|
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The British Library
The British Library is also a good source of information. You can use our Inter Library Loan scheme to borrow from the British Library, or make a personal visit to consult material. The British Library is in London and it is best to apply for a Reader Pass and request to see specific material. Details of their services can be found at
Ethos is the British Library's electronic thesis service. Through their web site you can view electronic versions of some theses. See http://ethos.bl.uk/About.do| for information about the service.
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RefWorks
RefWorks is a web-based bibliography and database manager which allows you to create your own personal database by importing references from online sources. You can then use these references when writing your theses in Microsoft Word and automatically format a bibliography or reference list using the Write-N-Cite tool.
Click here for further information about RefWorks|
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Using Other Libraries
As a researcher at the University of Bolton, you are entitled to borrow books from other university libraries, under the 'SCONUL Access scheme'. This can be useful if we do not hold the specialist material that you require for your research.
Simply complete an application form at the Library Desk in the Library and you will be issued with a SCONUL Access card. You will then be able to use any university Library which is a member of the scheme. For more information, please check the following web pages:
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Institutional Repositories
Institutional repositories store the work of a university's academics, online, so that it is available for other researchers to consult. A repository can be either subject– or institution-based and is a collection of the intellectual output in that subject area or of that institution.
UBIR is the University of Bolton's Institutional Repository and can be found at the following address: http://ubir.bolton.ac.uk/|
You can search the repository to find out about the work of colleagues and submit your own work for inclusion. For further details, or to find out how to submit your research, contact the UBIR team by email on ubir@bolton.ac.uk|
Repositories contain full-text documents or records of research, with links to full-text, or a mixture of the two. For a comprehensive list of open repositories visit ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories) at http://roar.eprints.org/|
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Keeping Up To Date
Electronic current awareness or alerting services will inform you by e-mail of newly published material in your subject area. There are different types of electronic current awareness services which may be useful to you—Table of Contents (TOC) alerts, and Saved Keyword Search alerts.
TOC alerts identify journal titles of interest, and you will receive an e-mail copy of the table of contents as new issues become available. These will give you an overall awareness of developments in your subject area. These alerts are provided by most electronic journal publishers.
Keyword search alerts will keep you informed when a new article is published on a particular subject. You can create a keyword search and save it. The search is run automatically at certain intervals, and the results e-mailed to you. These sorts of services are provided by Cambridge Journals Online, Science Direct, SCOPUS and other databases which the Library subscribes to.
Please note that for some of these services, personal registration is required.
In addition, the British Library's ZETOC service is recommended as the most comprehensive of the electronic current awareness services. ZETOC indexes the contents of 20,000 current journals, as well as UK and International conferences, in a vast number of subject areas. To set up an account simply log on to ZETOC from the library database list and follow the on screen instructions.
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Advice and Training
As a first step you should contact your subject librarian, who can provide you with expert advice on research methods and materials in your subject area.
In addition, the Library's Research Liaison Specialist, Shirley Ward, has responsibility for supporting your information needs. Librarians are happy to organise training sessions, either for a group or on a one-to-one basis, on research skills and information literacy.
Click here for a full list of Subject Librarians|
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