St George’s Library has access to thousands of e-Books through online providers: Ebook Central, Oxford Academic, Kortext and Books@Ovid. You can search for titles using Hunter, the library catalogue, and they can be accessed from any computer online with an NHS OpenAthens username and password.
Use Hunter, the library catalogue to search for an NHS e-Book.
An additional collection of e-Books is available through Kortext, at https://app.kortext.com/
Funded by Health Education England, the collection covers subject areas including key clinical topics, nursing and healthcare management, alongside titles on critical appraisal, mentoring and revision resources for medical exams as well as a diversity collection.
To access, go directly to the Kortext website: https://app.kortext.com, select St George’s University Hospitals NHS Trust from the list of institutions and enter your OpenAthens details.
If you need to create an OpenAthens account, or have forgotten your password, visit: https://openathens.nice.org.uk/
Searching for print books
Use Hunter to search the library catalogue for print books
The library has a wide range of titles of interest to medical professionals. When in the library the call numbers below will help you to locate books on the following topics.
| W 1-925 General Medicine. Health Professions | WO 1-950 Surgery |
| WB 1-962 Practice of Medicine | WP 1-910 Gynaecology |
| WE 1-890 Musculoskeletal System | WR 1-670 Dermatology |
| WG 1-700 Cardiovascular System | WS 1-463 Paediatrics |
| Wl 1-710 Nervous System | WU 1-640 Dentistry. Oral Surgery |
| WM 1-611 Psychiatry | WW 1-722.1 Opthalmology |
Finding the book you need
Books are arranged in alphabetical, and then numerical order of the call number, Use the call number to find the book on the shelves.
Use the self-service machines to borrow the book- you will need your ID-badge/library access card.
Reserving items
If all the copies of the book that you want are out on loan you can reserve a copy by placing a hold.
The ‘Locations’ tab in Hunter will tell you if there are any copies available. If all the copies have the status ‘On Loan‘, you’ll need to sign-in to Hunter in order to place a hold on the book. Click the ‘Sign-in for more options‘ link. Enter your login details when prompted. Then click the ‘Place Hold‘ link which has now become active.
Click on the ‘Request’ button to confirm the hold. You’ll then be notified of your place in the Holds queue. When a copy becomes available you will receive an email notification to come and collect it from the Library Helpdesk, you then have one week to collect the item
You can view or cancel your hold requests by using the ‘My Account‘ link in the top right-hand corner of Hunter and clicking on the ‘Requests‘ tab.
If you are unable to find a book or journal article in our collections, we may be able to obtain a copy for you from a different library.
Sign into your library account and follow the 'Request Interlibrary Loan' link. Complete the online form as fully as possible, specifying whether your request is for a book or a journal article.
NHS staff are funded for 10 free interloans per year, further requests must be funded by an account code or cash/cheque payment. If you are paying for your ILL by account code, please enter the code in the Comment box. Cash payments must be made at the Library helpdesk (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm).
You will be notified when your item arrives. They must be signed for and returned by the date shown on the slip inside. Certain items may not be removed from the Library - they will be marked 'restricted access' and kept at the Helpdesk.
Most book requests usually arrive within 7-14 days. Please note, however, that supply times depend upon the organisation supplying the request, and this is not within our control.
For more information see the inter-library loans webpage.
The usual copyright limitations for fair usage apply – i.e. you can print one chapter or up to 5% of a book or similar publication, whichever is the greater. Each supplier is a little different on the limitations, but once you’ve reached the limit, you may not be able to print any more.
Dawsonera allows you to download a whole book for a day/24 hours. You will lose access after this time but you can always go back and download the book again. In order to read the downloaded book, you will need to download and install free software. On any PC or laptop you will need Adobe Digital Editions, and if using a mobile device you will need BlueFire Reader. It is recommended to read these e-books online. With Oxford Medicine Online, you may download individual chapters up to the copyright limit, and can keep them indefinitely.
If you are reading an e-book on your own PC, laptop or device it may depend on which version of Windows /Mac OS you are using, whether the browser is Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari, and your cookie settings. Try switching to a different browser, or deleting cookies and restarting the browser.
If you are still experiencing problems then there may be an issue with the suppliers service, check the Library Services Alerts http://www.library.sgul.ac.uk/services-alerts for updates on service issues.
If the book you need is not available through the library then you can:
