Library Information

Borrowing books from another Petroc campus

You can request a book from a campus where you do not study. You can find our complete catalogue of books using the link above, and to request an item from another campus, first log in with your student number then select the book and click "Request" on the right hand side. Once the book is ready to collect from your chosen site, you will get an email to your student account.

If you prefer, you can also email library@petroc.ac.uk but take care to provide full details of the book's title, author, shelf-mark, and the site you wish to collect it from.

Reserving items already on loan

If a book you wish to borrow is currently on loan, you can click to Reserve it from the Library catalogue. You will need to select which site you wish to collect the book from.

Requesting a book or article not on the Catalogue

If there is a book you really need but cannot find it on the Library Catalogue, please email library@petroc.ac.uk with as much detail as you can about the book. Ideally give the title, author(s), ISBN (barcode), and year of publication. Please also tell us about your course and why you need the book. We will then look at the viability of purchasing it, or contacting other libraries for an inter-library loan.

If you are requesting a journal article, you must fill out an article request form and attach it to your email. You can access the request form by clicking here (please make sure you are signed in with your Petroc account to access this).

Requesting a book from the University of Plymouth (HE)

If there is a book you have found on Primo via the University of Plymouth, and there is no electronic equivalent or an equivalent available in the Petroc Library, please contact library@petroc.ac.uk and give full details of the book you are looking for. We are able to request books from Plymouth if there is no other alternative.

If you have a print disability, you can sign up through Petroc Library to access RNIB Bookshare. 

This programme is run by the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) and gives registered users access to digital copies of over 1,000,000 printed books. These enable you to read a book with Text-to-Speech software, larger font sizes or even have the work converted to braille.

A print disability is one which makes it difficult or impossible for you to read a printed book. This includes people who:

• are blind or partially sighted, where corrective lenses do not improve your ability to read

• have a learning difficulty such as dyslexia, autism or ADD

• have a physical disability which affects your ability to read or even hold a book

If you think you could benefit from RNIB Bookshare, please contact the Library Services team at library@petroc.ac.uk so we can register you for an account. The service is free to use for registered users.

You can find out more about RNIB Bookshare at its website.

If you haven't used any of the eResources before and are unsure where to begin, these are some examples that are perfect for any course.

If you have not already, you will need to log in with your Petroc account to access most of the eResources.

eBook Central - this is the Library's major provider of eBooks and it covers virtually every subject. There are also a number of course textbooks available. You can read directly in the browser, download eBooks, or even print sections of a book. These can also be searched for on the Library Catalogue.

Credo - this is a vast encyclopaedia in which you can find information for virtually any topic. Credo is a great place to begin research into a new topic, and you can use the mind map tool to build connections with lots of important keywords.

EBSCO (formerly My Discover) - EBSCO is an excellent place to find academic articles that have been peer-reviewed, if you are ready to expand your knowledge further. Search using just your keywords.