Access to better libraries

therevelator

Hi, I'm a frequent library user in London but I've become very disillusioned with the public libraries as places for study. Far too often there are teens chatting, kids screaming, homeless people loitering, poor toilet facilities, lack of space, poor access to current magazines/journals and a general lack of atmosphere conducive to reading. Although, generally, access to books is quite good, I've decided I need to find somewhere else to go. I was thinking that there must be university libraries in London that would be more suitable (would they have magazines - New Scientist, Economist etc?)

Anyway, I've asked about access to these libraries (UCL etc) in the past for the general public and was told I had to be a student . So, I was thinking that if I sign up for a course somehow then I could gain access.

Does anyone have experience of doing this? What about if I sign up for a 'lesser' course like an advanced certificate or a diploma? Would that allow me to gain access to university libraries in London?

KiKi

Look at UCL's page - it's £30 a month for access, which would be cheaper than a course, but you have to evidence why you need it.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/private.shtml

Google any of the other libraries and you can see from their membership pages what they do, too; you don't have to only be a student, but rules are different between libraries.

KiKi

Logie143

From experience of Uni libraries they're louder and more annoying to work in than normal ones.


UCL may be different, but students are students.

catfish50

I use the Senate House Library (http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/library/membership.shtml). If you join the Friends of the Senate House Library, you can then join the library for £78.64 (borrowing) or £57.60 (reference only). They have subs to just about every periodical you can think of, also online access to many academic resources.

Also there's the Wellcome Library (http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/), which is free and has really excellent facilities, but is a specialized library for the history of medicine. Also the London Library (http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/index.htm) which is private and has a massive collection but is very expensive.

Oldernotwiser

If you're studying a course with the OU this will give you access to a range of university libraries.

http://library.open.ac.uk/help/otherlibs/index.cfm