Library FAQs

You can use AND, OR and NOT to combine your keywords

OR widens your search – it finds articles containing any of the terms,

Help OR Assistance

Students AND Stress

NOT also narrows your search by excluding a term,

Students NOT Postgraduates

See how this works

You can normally access your library account using our automated telephone system 23 hours a day. A system backup takes place every morning between 3 a.m and 4 a.m.
The direct phone number to the library system is 0141 273 1550. You can also phone the Base number and select option 1 (renew your library books) to get to the library system.
You will need to key in your 14 digit library number and your 4 digit library PIN when asked. Your library number is printed on your matriculation card. Both numbers can be found on My Caledonian under My library details.

Renewing books
For renewals press 5 and key in your library number and PIN when asked. Follow the instructions to renew your loans and list the items renewed and the items not renewed.
If your books are overdue and you renew them, your account details won’t include the fines on them until you close the call. Phone again for your fines total.

Checking account details
For your library account options press 2 and key in your library number and PIN when asked. Follow the instructions to list your loans and holds or hear your account information, including previous fines. If you have just renewed overdue books, the fines on them won’t be included until you close the call and phone again.
Our automated telephone system is not able to tell you the fines on your overdue books until they have been renewed or returned. You should select the option to speak to a member of staff if you can’t renew your loans.

You are not allowed to renew if:

• your fines exceed £10 (all accounts are blocked from borrowing or renewing when fines exceed £10)
• you have exceeded the maximum number of renewals allowed (30 times)
• your library membership has expired
• the book is on hold for somebody else

Click on My Account in the library catalogue. Enter your library number and PIN and click Display User Information.
The Account Summary is an overview of your library account. It includes only fines due on items you have returned or renewed (known as ‘bills’). Fines on items you still have on loan are shown under the Checkouts tab. Like the Holds and Bills tabs, this appears only when necessary.

Alerts:
An alert that you are Flagged means you have overdue items or bills. You are still allowed to borrow and renew.
An alert that you are Blocked means your fines or bills exceed £10. You are not allowed to borrow or renew until you pay.

Tabs:
The Checkouts tab shows items you have on loan with due dates and any current fines on them. You can also renew your loans here. Remember that the fines you see here:

• will keep increasing until you return or renew the items
• are not included in the Account Summary until you return or renew the items.

The Holds tab shows the items you have on hold and your position in the holds queue.

Available holds can be collected at the Base on level 0 of the Saltire Centre.
You can cancel your holds; tick the box beside the title and press Cancel Selected holds.

The Bills tab shows any previous unpaid bills. These are fines you incurred when you returned or renewed overdue items. Fines on overdue items that you still have on loan do not appear here.

Click on My Account in the library catalogue. Enter your library number and PIN and click List Items on Loan. If your fines exceed £10 you are not allowed to renew your loans.

Select the Renew All button (or tick the box beside the title you want to renew) and click Renew Selected Items.
The next screen tells you which items have been renewed successfully. Check it carefully, especially if you have a lot of books on loan. You should print it so that you have a record of the new due dates.
Fines are NOT displayed here; you can check them by clicking My Account again and selecting Review My Account.

You are not allowed to renew if:

• your fines exceed £10 (all accounts are blocked from borrowing or renewing when fines exceed £10)
• you have exceeded the maximum number of renewals allowed (30 times)
• your library membership has expired
• the book is on hold for somebody else

The acetate printer is now on levle 1 of the Saltire Centre, past the lift beside the poster printers.

In some databases you may see  . In most cases this will take you to the full text, but occasionally it takes you to a screen that asks you to pay. If this happens, check the journal title in our journals collection as above, to see if we have the article elsewhere.
If you see this link  it will take you directly to the full text of the article, if we subscribe to the electronic version of the journal. If the journal does not display for some reason, then you will see  this will let you check whether we have the journal or not.

The database may tell you that it has only the citation or the abstract of the article. If this happens, look for the journal title (not the article title) in our journals collection (you’ll need your Athens password). We may have the full text in another database or in print.

Some databases make it obvious that the full text is there – the article title links to it, or the reference says something like   Full text.
Some databases may show  This will take you to the full text but you may have to follow some extra links first.

In most cases, yes. The A-Z list of databases tells you which are available on-campus only.

Use our search tips page to get started. We also have help sheets and online tutorials which are in SMILE - on the library tab in GCULearn. The databases all have help screens, and you can ask your librarian if you need more advice.