Albert Sloman Library
Our Albert Sloman Library (ASL)
is just a few minutes’ walk from teaching buildings and
student residences at our Colchester Campus.
With holdings amounting to over one million books,
periodical issues and microfilms, including 8,000 current
periodicals, our ASL is a major resource. Students at our
Southend Campus can visit or borrow books via a daily
dispatch service. In addition, our Southend Campus students
have access to the library at South Essex College, our
partner institution at Southend.
ASL holdings are strong in all subjects in which we have academic
programmes and, in some areas, (Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe)
are of national significance. Holdings are chosen to support teaching and
research but also include books of general or leisure interest. Extra copies
of heavy demand books (like set texts) are available in a short loan
collection and you can check the location of books on our online catalogue
online.
Our ASL provides ideal conditions for quiet study with 1,070 reader
places. In addition, 110 networked PCs and terminals provide access to over
47,000 online journals, databases, e-books and library catalogues. Viewing
facilities for DVDs and videos are available. Special collections of
archives concentrate on contemporary material, for example the papers of the
Social Democrat Party (SDP), QUALIDATA and the Boundary Commission for
England and Wales. Recent additions include extensive papers relating to the
work of Sigmund Freud, the historical collection of the Royal Statistical
Society Library and the Library of the Essex Society for Archaeology and
History.
Our ASL has long opening hours, a total of 84 hours over seven days a
week during term and 42.5 to 84 hours in vacations. A reading room provides
overnight study and IT facilities during much of the year.