Appointment Regulations

The service is open Tuesday to Friday. 

Appointments must be requested by 4pm at least 3 working days in advance of the intended appointment date. However, we recommend booking as far in advance as possible to secure your chosen appointment date(s).  

Appointments provide you with access to the Reading Room for the full opening hours on your approved date(s). The opening hours are 10am-1pm and 2-4pm. You may arrive at a time convenient to you. The latest admittance to the Reading Room is 3:30pm.

There are four seats available in the Reading Room at any one time. 

The SCA service is closed between 1pm-2pm for staff lunch, therefore if you have arrived in the morning you will be asked to leave the department during this hour.
There is a café on site, situated on the ground floor of the Syndey Jones Library, plus several other cafés, shops and seating areas within a short distance of the Library.

One person may attend each appointment. Appointment date(s) for multiple persons are unavailable at present. 

Microfilm/microfiche

If you have been advised that the material you wish to consult is available on microfilm/microfiche, the microfilm reader is available in two hour slots and each appointment slot allows access between 10am-12pm or 2pm-4pm, Tuesday to Friday. 

If you are interested in viewing microfilm or microfiche material from the Sydney Jones Library holdings, please contact scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk prior to submitting a booking request, in order to ensure that the material may be delivered to Special Collections and Archives.

How to request material 

When requesting your appointment slot(s) via the booking form provided, please also provide the reference numbers, titles, dates and any further applicable information (such as issue no. or volume) of the material you wish to consult. 

This information may be located via the online catalogues. Library Search  contains records for all printed material; once you search in the main bar, you will be presented with an option to search in “Special Collections”. There are separate online finding aids for archives and manuscripts. More information on searching the catalogues effectively is provided on the Support for Teaching and Research webpage. 

We require this information with advance notice as we operate a closed access service, whereby material is retrieved from the stores prior to your visit. No further retrievals are conducted during your appointment visit.

We can facilitate the viewing of up to approximately three archival boxes of material or six bound volumes per appointment slot. This is dependent upon the size and condition of the specific material requested for your appointment. SCA staff will be happy to advise in advance of your appointment if your request has reached/exceeded the limit.

If you require any assistance in locating the reference numbers of the material you wish to consult, please do not hesitate to contact us via email (scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk).

The Reading Room is not available for general study space.

Please read the full Terms & Conditions before making a booking. You will need to confirm on the booking form that you have read, understand and accept these.

Your appointment remains provisional until approved by the team, when you will receive an email notification whether your request is successful or not.