If you are a researcher and your base is a long way from the institution which employs you it is possible that you may find yourself at a disadvantage. All the research materials that lie at your colleagues finger tips are out-of-reach. Wouldn’t it be great if you could go to your nearest Higher or Further Education institution and use their resources? Well you can! SCONUL Access enables staff, students, and research students to borrow material from other libraries.
Maria Hiscoe has written a short, but sweet, guest blog post for us introducing SCONUL Access. The plan is that we will be able to follow it up with accounts from the user end, so if you have experience of SCONUL access and wish to share it either comment on the blog or get in touch.
*********
Hello Everyone. My name is Maria Hiscoe and I am one of two Administrators working for SCONUL Access. We both work from home and so understand that it can be quite an isolating experience.
So much information just washes around a work environment; serendipity is often the name of the game!
Remote working can lead to gaps in your knowledge and you can sometimes miss out on important tools. We think SCONUL Access is one such tool so here is a little teaser to tempt you to investigate…
Does your library have everything you need or would you like to check out the resources of other university libraries?
Have you heard of SCONUL Access: your passport to over 170 higher education libraries in the UK and Republic of Ireland?
Last year
Just under 11,000 researchers
Borrowed over 148,000 books
From 165 of the 176 participating libraries
It’s free, it’s easy to join. Why not take a look today and make your life easier!
If you are have used SCONUL Access perhaps you’d like to share your experiences and comment on this blog.
Check out the scheme at http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/index_html
Send comments and queries to sconulaccess@sconul.ac.uk
Ramblings of a Remote Worker 
Pingback: Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Elsewhere on UKOLN Blogs: February 2010
Thanks – this is incredibly timely news to me as I’m about to move to a job which will see me moving around a great deal more. This looks to be very useful, and I wasn’t aware of it before.
Just wanted to note that more institutions than are currently listed on http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/members actually take part in SCONUL. If they’re not listed check out the institution’s website to make sure, usually in the library section under external membership or the like.