For copyright reasons you are not able to request a whole book through the ‘request a digital copy’ service. If you do require a whole book then you should use the Document Delivery service from the British Library.
You can request a chapter from a book using the Request a digital copy service, but you will need to know the details of the chapter in order to place the request.
If you know the title of the book the chapter is in you may be able to find the information you need by searching on a publisher’s site or on Amazon and looking for the table of contents for that book. You need the title of the chapter and the page numbers.
There is also a filter for ‘Book Chapters’ within Library search under Content Type filter:
This is the best option to use as it will fill in the chapter details for you.
Using the ‘book chapters’ filter is also useful if you are researching a topic, but don’t know a specific book title.
Many of the steps for requesting a book chapter are the same as for requesting an article.
Step 1: Login to Library Search
- Go to Library Search
- Click the Sign in link in the top right of the menu bar
- In the box that is displayed select the Staffs Uni login credentials link
- You should be signed in automatically to your Library account but if prompted enter your normal login details
Step 2: Search for the item you want
- Type in the title of the item in the search bar, or if you don’t know the specific item enter an appropriate search term. Make sure that the 'Search Everything' option is selected and press enter or click the Search button.
- On the results screen select theExpand my search beyond University subscriptions button on the panel on the left of the screen under Refine your search.
- Your search will now be matched with results outside the Staffs Uni collections, as well as those we do hold. New items should now be displayed in the search results
- Click the filter Book Chapters under the Facets list to show the chapters available to request
- In the list of results the text ‘No Online Access’ by an item confirms that we don’t have the book the chapter is from in our electronic collections and that it should be available to request from another library. See example below:
Step 3: Placing a request
- Click the ‘No Online Access’ link. This will take you to the item detail page and show the Locate item/How to get it section.
- Click the link ‘Request a digital copy’
- This will display the Resource Sharing Request form.
- The form has been pre-populated with details of the article.
- Check that all the required fields have been completed. The more information provided at this stage the more likely it is that the request can be dealt with quickly by the library supplying the item.
- Click the ‘Send Request’ button.
- You will see a message that says
"Your item was successfully reserved – you will receive an email when it is available at the collection point"
- You will also receive an email to your university account confirming the request has been created and is being processed. Please note this does not guarantee the item can be supplied as it has not yet been allocated to another library.
- Once the item is ready you will receive an email with the title Notification Item Letter with the link to download the item.
