What the library can do for you!

With a new academic year underway, you may be wondering what kind of support is out there to help students make the most of their studies. The Library is here with resources, services and expertise available to the whole OU community. A few highlights: 

World-Class Resources 

With access to thousands of ebooks, online scholarly journals and newspapers, archival sources full of treasures to explore as well as image databases and more, there really is something for everyone. Browse our collection subject areas to see what is available to support your area of study. 

Online training 

Each month, we run a programme of interactive online training sessions for students providing live, interactive training on library research and digital literacy skills. Recordings of all the sessions are also available to watch any time. 

Our research shows a correlation between participation in library training and better attainment results. Across the university, 31% of students who attended a live session gained a distinction at the end of their module. Check out our training offerings to see what is on now and to find links to recorded sessions. 

24/7 help  

Whether you are a lark or a night owl, the Library Helpdesk offers live online help through our 24-hour chat service available 7 days a week. Need to find an article? Question about what keywords to use in your search? Discovered something Google can’t answer? Let a librarian help! Any time, day or night, the OU Library is here for you.   

Disability support  

We are committed to ensuring our library services are accessible for all our users and provide a range of specialised services to help those who are studying with a disability. Services include converting inaccessible articles and book chapters, support for literature searching, and SensusAccess - which enables material to be converted into a more accessible format, for example PDF to text, audio, Word or Braille. You can contact the Library Helpdesk to discuss your specific requirements or if you have any accessibility suggestions.