Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.
From 15 September 2025 changes will be made to the opening hours of some of our libraries, these changes are set out below. Please check the library opening hours webpage for full details of all library opening hours.
Semester opening times of four site libraries – Law, ECA, Moray House, Noreen and Kenneth Murray – will be: Monday to Thursday 9am-8pm; Friday 9am-5pm (9am-7pm for Law and Noreen and Kenneth Murray)
New College Library will close at 5pm Monday-Friday
Weekend opening hours of the following libraries – Law, ECA, Moray House, Noreen and Kenneth Murray and New College – will be standardised to 12pm-5pm.
Art & Architecture Library will close for University vacation periods.
Changes at the Western General Hospital Library
The Western General Hospital Library will convert to a self-service Student Study Area from 1 September. The EdHelp service desk and Library will close at 5pm on Friday 22 August, and the small book collection will be moved in the week of 25 August.
Changes at the Main Library
From 1 September, the EdHelp service desk in the Main Library will close at 7pm weekdays and 5pm weekends. This does not affect the opening hours of the Main Library itself, which remains open 24×7.
Feedback
These changes are being made based on analysis of library and service usage and will allow us to provide a more effective service. Comments and feedback from users (both staff and student) can be directed through the normal channel at Information Services Feedback Form | Help | Information Services
So, what do you do when your university card is lost, damaged or stolen?
Well, usually you will visit our EdHelp Service Desk in the Main Library or any Card Help Desks and get a replacement card. But, you will need to pay the £10 fee; and the fee applies to all card holders (staff, students and visitors)
But for the next few weeks, between April 21 – May 23 you can get your university card replaced for free!!!
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This is a one time, single offer for the duration specified above, so if your card is lost, damaged or stolen, head to one of our card help desks and the super friendly library staff there will be able to help you.
Library users are asked to write letters to the Library, and it can be about anything that they love or hate. It has been very successful as Priestner says “the method is universally understood and very willingly participated in”.
So, you are given the option to either declare your love or break up with the Library. The letters are written specifically to the Library and not to staff and you can give your reasons for your choice. Your responses help us have a very informal and often funny but instructive idea as to how you feel. We will run this from the 10th till the 16th February; you can pick up your love or break up letter from the foyer at the Law Library and fill it in at your leisure.
Responses are private and are judged by Law Library staff. When winners are chosen from each category they are contacted for permission to anonymously post the letters on social media. And there will be a £20 book token for a winning love letter and a winning break up one! So, go ahead and pick up your love or break up letter from the Library and let it know how you feel and what you like or don’t like about it.
Example of love letter to be completed
Example of breaking up letter to be completed
We are looking forward to reading your replies; and remember to address them to the Library.
Hello, and if you’re a new student joining us for the 2023/24 academic year we look forward to meeting you in the Law Library soon!
We are Anna Richards and SarahLouise McDonald, and we are your Law Librarians. Anna works the first half of the week, SarahLouise the second, and you can reach us both by email on law.librarian@ed.ac.ukat any time.
You may have already met us at one of the several induction sessions we’ve been running over the past week or two. If you missed them you can find recordings on the Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel:
The slides for each session are added as ‘attachments’ to the videos above. Please note that captions are automatically generated and we’ll endeavour to get them corrected over the coming month.
One session which wasn’t recorded was the Diploma Welcome to the Library session which was delivered face-to-face. If you’re a Diploma student you should already have access to the slides via your Learn pages, but if not you can find them here: Law – Diploma induction 2023.
If you’re looking for information on using the physical library, we recommend you check out the Law Library webpages and take a look at our Virtual Orientation Guide (Microsoft Sway document – other formats are available by request). We hope that you’ll get in touch with either ourselves or our colleagues on the library helpdesk by contacting EdHelp if you have any queries. See you in the library!
Books stacked on a table on the Law Library mezzanine. Photo by Sam Stills, copyright University of Edinburgh.
We often get asked by students how they get access to a particular item that we do not have in the Law Library collection. So here are a few ideas about how and where to get access!
Online or in print?
Some items are available both online and in print, others are only available in one format. It is worthwhile searching to see if the item is available in another format.
It’s useful to check on the databases (especially Westlaw, Lexis and HeinOnline) to see if we have online access. Although some material from these databases is added to DiscoverEd- not everything is!
Some print copies of key texts are in other libraries across the university (as well as the law library) so it may be that the item you want is available in another location.
For items outside the central area you can place a hold and collect them centrally.
For items held in the central area you need to visit the holding library and borrow from there.
We do not add all print journal article details to DiscoverEd, so if you cannot find the article online then it’s worthwhile looking to see if we hold the print journal.
If you cannot come on to campus (you are studying online or perhaps self-isolating) then you can request a scan of a book chapter or journal article be emailed to you. There are limits (due to copyright law and if it has been requested previously) but the service has been well used during lockdown periods.
The library does not post out books to users, so if you want a full print book you would need to come in and borrow the item. Full detail of the service are at:
Interlibrary loans (ILLs) are where you request an item and we see if we can borrow it on your behalf from a partner library. On campus students can request journal articles and book chapter scans and also print books (which will be collectable from a campus library). Online students can request book chapter scans and journal articles.
For journal articles and book chapters we request a scan and send it via email. There is a limit per academic year about how many you can request, but usually the amount is sufficient. The library does not post out books to users. Full detail are at:
If you are living in/near Edinburgh then joining the National Library of Scotland might be an option. The National Library has access to the Advocates Library collection, which is an extensive legal collection. Full details of how to join are at:
Students can request that the Library purchases an book for research or study. The Request a Book scheme (RaB) has been running for several years and the majority of the items requested have been purchased. Library staff may get back in touch with questions or suggestions depending on the item and the cost, but more often than not items are purchased. Full details are at:
If there is a journal that you think the library should get then contact us on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk to chat it over.
More details on each of these services and more are available on the Library webpages:
As the end of semester approaches, you may be concerned about the hours the library will be open in the run up to exams. We’ve increased weekend hours as we get closer to the exam period by opening later on Sundays in December:
Monday 29th November 2021 to Monday 20th December 2021
Monday – Thursday
9am – 9:50pm
Friday
9am – 6:50pm
Saturday
9am – 4:50pm
Sunday
12 noon – 6:50pm
There will also be changes to the opening hours over the winter break, as follows:
Tuesday 21 December 2021 to Sunday 16 January 2022
Tuesday 21 – Thursday 23 December 2021
9am – 4:50pm
Friday 24 December 2021 – Tuesday 4 January 2022
Closed
Wednesday 5 – Friday 7 January 2022
9am – 4:50pm
Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 January 2022
Closed
Monday 10 – Friday 14 January 2022
9am – 4:50pm
Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 January 2022
Closed
Normal semester opening hours will resume on Monday 17th January 2022.
If you find the times above don’t suit your schedule for study, you may want to look at the Main Library opening hours, or for a complete list of library opening information please check the Library website.
As the semester gets going you may be keen to visit our beautiful Law Library at Old College to find materials, use a study space, or generally just soak up the atmosphere.
However we know that after the past year some students may be anxious about coming on to campus, and may be worried about what to expect. In order to help with that we’ve prepared a short Sway as a guide to the Law Library. It includes information on what’s in the collections, photos of the library, and links to other helpful resources you may want to use. You can find it here:
We’ve made different guides for each of our site libraries which you can find on the Library Orientation Guide page on our website. You’ll also find a guide to Using the Library Online, which we think will be helpful for our online or distance students, or those who are self-isolating or in quarantine.
Other preparations for visiting campus may include looking at maps ahead of time. Did you know we’ve got an interactive campus map? If you visit the Maps page and use the key to select the Layers tab, and then click the eye icon to make Libraries and Study Spaces visible, you can see all our locations across the city! We’ve highlighted the Law Library icon in the image below in pink.
We look forward to seeing you on campus soon!
Note: The Microsoft Sway platform uses moving images in their templates, and each of the above Sways use one moving image at the top of the page. If you require the information in an alternative format please contact us by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.
It’s almost the start of the new academic year which means it’s one of the busiest times of year for Academic Support Librarians. We offer a range of introductory training sessions for students joining the university, and we have some bespoke sessions arranged for each level of study in the School of Law.
14th September: Postgraduate (online) – Using the University Library
22nd September: Undergraduate: Using the University Library
23rd September: Postgraduate (all) – Using the University Library
These training events will all be run online using the Collaborate platform, and are often very popular. To find out more and register please use the MyEd Events Booking system and enter the titles above in the search box. Alternatively watch out for direct booking links being circulated via the UG, PG or PhD offices. We will also record these sessions and upload them to our Media Hopper Channel after the event.
When the semester begins we’ll offer one-to-one appointments which you can use to get additional advice to support your studies. These are also available to book via the MyEd Events Booking system, just search for “Literature search clinic” and select the Law specific event, or search for “Law” and select provider group “IS Library and University Collections” to find all our Law related training.
If you have any questions about these or any other training you’d like, please contact us by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk. We look forward to welcoming you (or welcoming you back) soon!
If you are interested in legal information and the research that goes into official publications, you may find this upcoming event hosted by the Scottish Law Librarians’ Group to be of interest.
The Scottish Law Librarians’ Group Presents, in association with the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh:
The House of Commons Library and Briefing Paper Research
Thursday 1st July 2021. 7pm-8.30pm
The SLLG Committee and Advocates’ Library are delighted to introduce the inaugural event in our new online lecture series which we hope will be of great interest to law librarians, legal professionals, law students and anyone with an interested in professional legal research.
David Torrance is an experienced researcher at the House of Commons Library and has worked on briefing papers relating to both Scottish Independence and current events in Northern Ireland.
In this talk he will introduce the work of the House of Commons Library, explaining the resources available, how research is conducted, and how briefing papers contribute to the work of the House. We will look at some of the briefing papers David has authored, specifically with reference to issues of relevance for legal professionals in Scotland such as the legality of an independence referendum. The event will also include time for questions after David’s presentation.
This is an online event which will be hosted on Zoom. A link to the event will be sent out to registered attendees two days prior to the talk. The event will be recorded and a link will be circulated to attendees along with additional resources relating to David’s work following the event.
As many of you know the rules on lockdown have begun to change. From the 26th April 2021 this means that library services can offer more access to premises – including the Law Library.
It is not a return to business as usual!
Staff and students will be able to access the premises and collections, with self-issue machines being available so that self-service borrowing can resume.
All users will need to adhere to the rules relating to Covid-19 restrictions including physical distancing, wearing a face covering (unless exempt) and the booking of study spaces before coming to the library. Full details on study spaces and how to book is available on the Study Spaces pages.
As access to the library starts the Click & Collect service will come to an end, but any requests made before the 19th of April will still be processed.
For students who have not had the opportunity to visit the Law Library this short presentation will give you an idea of what is available during usual service: Law Library Tour
The Library staff look forward to seeing you again!
