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External Borrowers and Visitors: North Lincolnshire SCITT Students

Everything you need to know about the Library if you are not a BGU student or staff member.

This page is relevant to anyone studying with North Lincolnshire SCITT (School-Centred Initial Teacher Training).

Accessing the Library

The Library is located in the Cornerstone Building, in the south-west corner of the campus next to the University Chapel and the pedestrian walkway from Newport.

The building entrance is locked in the evenings, after which time access is restricted to BGU students and staff members only. The access control gates at the library entrance are operated with a BGU ID card. Anyone without a card can ring the bell for attentionYou will be required to sign in upon entering the Library.

With the above in mind you should normally be able to gain access to the Library during Service Desk opening hours: https://libguides.bishopg.ac.uk/opening.

NB. If you gain access to the Library you may remain in the building until closing, but if you leave after the building entrance is locked you will be unable to re-enter without a BGU ID card. 

The Library is normally closed over the long Easter weekend and between Christmas and New Year.

Physical resources

The library is home to over 140,000 physical resources including books, journals and audio-visual materials.  Use WorldCat to search library collections. 

SCITT students are categorised as external borrowers and may borrow up to 8 items at a time. Read more on our Borrowing pages. External membership does not include access to the Library's inter-library service, postal loan service, scanning service or More Books scheme.

Online resources

Due to licensing restrictions SCITT students have access to some but not all of the University's online databases. Access to these resources is via a service called OpenAthens. An OpenAthens account will be set up for you when you join the Library and the login details will be emailed to you.

Links to the databases available to SCITT students can be found below; users are prompted to sign in via OpenAthens when attempting to access these databases.

SCITT students may also be interested in our list of open access resources which are free to view.

NB. You should only need to use WorldCat (our library catalogue) when planning a visit to the Library, e.g. to plan which resources you may like to borrow.  Online resources found on WorldCat, like ebooks, cannot be accessed by SCITT students.


Academic OneFile
Over 11,000 peer-reviewed journals and more than 8,000 of them in full text.

Cambridge Journals Online
The full text of over 200 social science and humanities journals published by Cambridge University Press. Many titles are accessible back to 1997, or to Volume 1 if published later.

Education Source
The full text of over 1,900 education journals and 550 ebooks. Also contains conference papers and indexing and abstracts for 3,500 journals. Also covers subject teaching.

General OneFile
Indexes over 10,000 periodicals from a variety of mainstream and specialised sources with full-text access available for over half of articles. Database access via Gale Cengage.

SAGE Journals
Over 670 full-text journals in the social sciences, humanities, and life sciences from 1999 to the present.

Wiley Online Library
Access an extensive range of quality journals, reference works and Current Protocols online, covering a range of scientific, medical, technical and professional disciplines.

Man browsing shelves
The Teaching Resources Collection
Fibre optic cable
The Social Study Suite
The Service Desk

Study facilities

There are a variety of study areas on both floors of the Library including areas for group, quiet and silent study.  Only current BGU students and staff members may book the Library's seminar rooms and silent study booths.

Rules and regulations

Lidded drinks are permitted in the Library but food and open drink containers are not. There is a water fountain and a drinks machine in the building foyer.  All library users are expected to make and take phone calls in the building foyer or stairwells and to treat library staff, their fellow library users, and the building with respect. 

Computers and wi-fi

SCITT students are permitted to bring laptops and mobile devices into the Library (there are plenty of power points located around the building) and connect to wi-fi via a guest account. Please ask at the Library Service Desk for further information. Free guest wi-fi is available campus-wide. Printing and photocopying facilities are not available.

The IT Helpdesk can be contacted on 01522 583666 or at helpdesk@bishopg.ac.uk. during office hours.

Image attribution

All photos ©Bishop Grosseteste University.