Library Services: supporting you through your studies

The Library is here to help you with advice and guidance, online resources, training and more.

Advice and Guidance

The Library Helpdesk provides specialist information advice and is available to support you with all your library needs Monday to Friday, 09:00-17:00. The Chat to a Librarian webchat service is available 24/7. The Library website offers guidance on how to use the OU Library, locating and accessing resources, carrying out a literature review and guidance on bibliographic management tools.

Checklists for new researchers

If you are new to the Open University, the Library have checklists for new researchers to help you navigate to some of the important information and resources you will need.

Online Resources

The OU Library provides you with world class, high quality academic resources that will support your research by enabling you to explore and keep up to date with your subject and undertake a rigorous and structured literature review to the high academic standards required. They include primary and secondary resources such as academic journals, newspapers, academic books and specialist resources such as statistical databases, legislation, conference proceedings and datasets.

Library Search is your gateway to find the library resources for your research. .

Library Services also provides you with access to resources and advice on how to reference sources used in your research in the most appropriate way to achieve the bibliographic standards expected of study at this level and to avoid plagiarism. They have also produced some specific Plagiarism guidance for Postgraduate Researchers.

The Library Research Support Team

The Library Research Support Team website provides advice and guidance on how to promote and disseminate your research, with links and guidance for the OU’s institutional repository of research publications, Open Research Online (ORO) and the OU's institutional data repository, Open Research Data Online (ORDO). 

Research students are required to upload an electronic copy of their thesis to ORO and are encouraged to deposit their publications. The Library Research Support team can give advice and guidance on open access publishing options, including Library publishing agreements, open access policies and copyright. The team can also offer guidance on researcher visibility and ORCID. 

The Library Research Support team also provide advice, guidance and support in the management of research data. The Library’s Research Data Management service can help a student plan for the management of data throughout the project and once it’s complete, including writing a data management plan and using ORDO for secure storage of both live research data and material the student would like to keep available for the longer term. Please see the Postgraduate Researchers' guide to using ORDO for a brief overview.

Training sessions are provided to give researchers an overview of how the library can support your research, in addition to sessions on data management, literature searching, copyright. The team also offer a postgraduate researcher drop-in once a fortnight for researchers to drop-in with their queries.

Please contact the Library Research Support team for advice or more information on the services they provide.

Training and events

The Library offer a programme of live online training to all OU students and staff. Sessions include a Library Services introduction, smarter searching with library databases, referencing, diverse voices, reference management tool introduction and exploring generative AI. Recordings and transcripts are made available for all sessions.

Using the OU Library in Milton Keynes

The OU Library in Milton Keynes on the Walton Hall campus provides a modern, quiet and spacious environment for study and research. It is wheelchair accessible, and staff are available from 9am to 5pm to assist with queries. 

The Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) Common Room is based on the ground floor of the Library building and is for the exclusive use of OU research students, open 24 hours a day. There are regular get-togethers (currently on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings) where you can meet research students from across the University and share advice, support and encouragement.

Access to other libraries

Library Services is a member of the SCONUL Access scheme which enables you to gain access to and borrow books from other University libraries.

All OU research students are entitled to apply for a free pass to use the British Library’s St Pancras, London reading rooms. The National Libraries of Scotland and Wales also welcome OU students.

Library services for locally employed tutors

The Library has negotiated access to a significant proportion of resources to those involved in supporting students that aren't directly employed by the Open University (this includes ARC supervisors and coordinators).The resources include abstracts and indexes, full-text journals, electronic books, images and statistics. Access is via the Library services for Locally Employed Tutors page.