Finding your reading materials

You can find all the resources you need to support your work from our library website. You will need to select the library you are most associated with to get started:

• Science and engineering students primarily use the Kings Norton Library (Cranfield site).
• Management students primarily use the Management Information and Resource Centre (MIRC) (Cranfield site).
• Barrington Library supports students taught from our Shrivenham site.

Using Library Search

The first place to start is Library Search. This is the search box on your library’s homepage. It allows you to do a very quick search of our Library Catalogue (for our printed stock) and a selection of our databases.

If you want to do a more in-depth search, we recommend you go to the Library Search system where you can find more advanced search features. To go the system, click on Search library resources in the blue bar at the top of your library website, then select Library Search.

Read our quick guide to using Library Search

A large number of our databases are not included in Library Search. If you want to perform a comprehensive search, we recommend you search the individual databases listed in your subject guide. You can find the link to all our subject guides on your library homepage.

Finding your course reading list

We manage the reading lists for all Master’s courses online, so you can find them easily and so we can keep them up to date for you. You can find the link to your reading list on Canvas.

Borrowing print items

You are welcome to visit Kings Norton Library and Barrington Library to browse the shelves and borrow items. (The MIRC print collection is temporarily located on the top floor of Kings Norton Library but we are planning to move it back to MIRC by the end of November). If the item you want to borrow is on loan to someone else, you can reserve it on Library Search and it will be recalled for you. You will receive an email when it is ready for you to collect.

Beyond reading lists

Once you start searching for items on Library Search and our databases to widen your reading, you may find things that we don’t have access to either in print or online. Don’t despair though – you can use our interlibrary loans service and we will try to get a copy for you from another library.