The following services are available to you as a registered technician
Borrowing books
You can borrow up to a maximum of three books. If you are unable to visit the Library in person, we offer a postal loan service.
To request that a book be posted to you, either
reserve the book on the online catalogue (see our 'Guide to the online catalogue' for instructions on how to do this)
or
contact the Library by telephone or e-mail providing your name, library barcode number and the details of the book that you need.
You can borrow a book for 28 days initially.
Renewing your loans
You may renew your loans for a further two periods of 28 days, if no-one else has requested them. To do this, either log in to the 'My account' facility of the online catalogue, or contact the Library by telephone or e-mail. If your books are overdue, you will not be able to renew them on the catalogue.
Overdue books
Please note that we charge fines of 20p for every day a book is unreturned after its due date. If you are late returning your book, please contact us to let us know. We will always try to consider extenuating circumstances where possible; we provide a grace period of five days before fines start to accrue to allow for delays caused by the postal system. If your accumulated charge reaches £5 we will ask you to clear it before we will provide you with further services.
We can provide any article or book chapter within our collection as a photocopy for a fee (within the terms of UK and EU copyright law).
To request a photocopy contact us with your name, library barcode number and the article or chapter details. We will return to you the photocopy, a copyright declaration (to be signed by you and returned to us) and an invoice. [Please note that we also provide a commercial photocopying service].
When visiting the Library you are able to make use of our self-service photocopying facilities and members rates for photocopying. Library staff will be happy to provide guidance in the use of this facility.
If you require an article, book or chapter of a book that is not available in our Library, we can obtain it on your behalf from the British Library or BMA Library as an inter-library loan (ILL).
While we try to keep the costs of this service to a minimum, we are charged by both libraries at a corporate library rate. If you have access to an NHS library, you may find it more cost effective to use their inter-library loan service.
Available in the Library are several online databases (including RPS e-PIC and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts) providing details of the contents of hundreds of journals. When visiting the Library you are able to carry out literature searches on these databases.
If you are unable to come to the Library in person, you can request that a librarian carries out a search customised to meet your information needs. Provide us with as much information as possible about your topic of interest, including a discursive abstract and any keywords that describe your subject. We will carry out a straightforward search for free and post or e-mail the results to you. If however your subject requires a more complex search, then we apply a fee of £35 per hour.
The Library and the Information Pharmacists both offer a literature search service. The team that carries out your search will be determined by the subject of your search and its intended use. Staff will be happy to discuss your literature search needs, so please contact us.