You can chat online with a member of Library staff, this service is available:

• Monday - Friday 9am-5pm

You can email Library@st-andrews.ac.uk with any enquiry you have.  

We offer one-to-one enquiries via Teams for students doing dissertations, and we can help with a wide range of things, including:

• Helping you identify the keyword and phrases for your topic, and advising on the search techniques to ensure your searching is efficient and effective in finding the best resources for your dissertation.
• Ensuring you can make use of all the online and specialist resources for you subject, advising on the best databases for your dissertation, and how to make use of these.
• Getting access to resources beyond the Library's collections.
• Using reference management software.

Email Library@st-andrews.ac.uk to request an appointment with one of the Academic Liaison Librarians:

Vicki Cormie, Hilda McNae and Sharon Nangle 

See below for details of subjects covered by each of the Academic Liaison Librarians

Vicki Cormie:

• Art History; Biology; Chemistry; Computer Science; Divinity; History; Mathematics and Statistics; Medicine; Modern Languages; and Physics and Astronomy.

Hilda McNae :

• Classics; Economics and Finance; English; Geography and Sustainable Development; International Relations; Management; Philosophy, Social Anthropology & Film Studies; and Psychology and Neuroscience.

Sharon Nangle:

• International Education Institute.
• Any questions about referencing styles.

This guide provides information on the range of resources, services and support the Library provides for students undertaking dissertations.  During this period of lockdown the Library recognises that students will need help getting access to resources, and may need additional support to find alternative sources when access cannot be provided to some resources.

Where possible students are advised to ensure they make full use of the online resources the Library already has, as well as online resources which are freely available.

Alongside support offered via email and the Library Chat service, the Library also provides a one-to-one enquiry service, where students can arrange to speak to a Librarian who can provide training on the use of subject databases to help students uncover and use a range of other academic materials.  Library staff recognise that finding information can be a challenge, please don't hesitate to ask for help, even with searching the Library catalogue.

Ever been stuck behind a paywall for a journal article, newspaper article, or ebook?

Lean Library is a browser add-on that makes it easier to get access to these resources. Land on a webpage where you can't access a resource and Lean Library can give you a link directing you to the full-text version available through the Library subscription, or an open-access version. It saves you time looking for a login button or having to go back to Library Search to look up a title. 

You can install the Lean Library browser add-on in most browser download.leanlibrary.com/

More information about Lean Library can be found in our guide libguides.st-andrews.ac.uk/lean

What's already available:

• Check if what you need is available online.  Search using the title in the search box on the Library homepage.  You can apply the "online" or "ebook" option to limit your search to find online resources. 

Morebooks service

You can use the Morebooks service to ask the Library to purchase books and ebooks the Library doesn't have.

Inter-Library Loan

Use the Inter-Library Loans service to request journal articles the Library doesn't have access to; a scan of a chapter from a book the library doesn't have; or the loan of a book from another Library.

Subject Guides

To help you find the databases and online resources recommended for your subject we have created Subject Guides.  Your Subject Guide will include:

• The contact details for the Librarian for your subject.  You can contact the Librarian for advise on which resources are likely to be best in your case, and for support using these, one-to-one training can be provided using Teams for anything you need help with using in your Subject Guide
• Details of the databases available within your subject, with links to access them.
• Information about resources used within your subject, such as primary sources, data and statistical sources, newspapers, etc.