On the ‘Have your say day’ organised by the OU in November 2024, the OU Students Association held two student consultations for international students. Some of the feedback we received, was that it would be helpful for international students to have in-person access to libraries, such as that offered by SCONUL in the UK.
SCONUL Access is a scheme which allows university library users to access study spaces, books and journals at other libraries which belong to the scheme.(1) Most university libraries in the UK, including the OU library, and some in the Republic of Ireland are part of the scheme.(2)
The OU Students Association liaised with the OU Library regarding access to SCONUL for international students. Unfortunately, students living outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland do not have access to this scheme. However, there are some options available for international students. More information is available on the Library website under ‘Libraries near you for overseas students’. I will highlight a few options below.
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External libraries and catalogues
The OU library has lists of libraries in other parts of the world and links to library catalogues. Access to libraries varies and books may not be in English. More information can be found on the OU library website, on the External libraries and catalogues page.
On that page, the Online Computer Library Centre (OCLC) catalogue – WorldCat can be searched. Other available resources are links to the European Library, Libdex and LibWeb.
The European Library online portal offers access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries. The objects come from institutions located in countries which are members of the Council of Europe and range from catalogue records to full-text books, magazines, journals and audio recordings. Thirty-five different languages are represented among the searchable objects.
Libdex is a directory of libraries across the world.
LibWeb is a website that links to national, state, academic and public libraries worldwide. It can be searched by keyword or browsed by country/regional area.
Contacting the OU Library
Did you know that the Library helpdesk is available 24/7 through the ‘Chat to a Librarian’ option? More information on how to contact the Library helpdesk is available on the Library website.
(1) https://access.sconul.ac.uk/ (Accessed 15 January 2025)
(2) https://www5.open.ac.uk/library/help-and-support/using-other-libraries-and-sconul-access (Accessed 15 January 2025)
This is such a great, informative article, Isabelle! Thank you so much for highlight our library services for international students.
Thank you very much!