Tell us what you need

You can ask the Library to consider purchasing any material you need.

Make a purchase request

  • If you need a journal article or thesis please follow the request process for Interlending.
  • If you’re requesting material to use for teaching, then we recommend you follow our standard Reading List process to ensure we prioritise your requests and buy appropriate quantities.

When will my material be available?

Standard print orders may take several weeks to arrive, depending on availability. Ebooks are usually available within a few days of purchase, however not everything is available for the Library to buy as an ebook even if a Kindle version exists. You will be notified when we have placed the order, and again when it’s available.

We prioritise genuinely urgent requests, and we can usually make these available more quickly. If the material is required urgently, please let us know on the Purchase Request Form to allow us to prioritise, but please use this responsibly. You can also place a borrowing request via YorSearch following the order; this helps us prioritise these. We use a network of approved suppliers who can guarantee delivery times and quality. We also buy from third party sources, including Amazon and independent suppliers.

If the item you asked for is shown on YorSearch as "Being Catalogued" and you need it urgently, please place a borrowing request on it via YorSearch; this will notify us and we can make this available within two days after we are notified.

Student queries

If you have any queries about buying resources, please speak to your Academic Liaison Librarian (ALL) for advice. Please visit our Subject Guides to find out who your ALL is.

Staff requests

Requests for new subscriptions

In order to manage budgets for resources with ongoing costs, we have to carefully consider the impact of taking out new subscriptions. If you would like the Library to subscribe to a journal or database not currently available in our collection, please speak to your Academic Liaison Librarian who will advise you how to complete the Subscription request form.

Expensive research and teaching requests

We have additional funds available to support the purchase of expensive library resources in strategically important research areas, across any discipline. If you would like to submit a request to this fund, please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian in the first instance to discuss putting together a bid. You will need to fill in a Strategic Research Resource request form and provide a strong case as to why you want to purchase a particular resource. Please note that we can only accept bids for one-off purchases, not for recurring subscriptions.

Funds are also available for expensive, one-off, teaching resources that cannot be afforded out of a department's regular library budget. You will need to fill in a New Teaching Resource request form.