Visit us

Alumni or retired staff members who live in the UK are eligible for free membership of the Library, find out what benefits you can expect as a member and how to become a member.

Members of the public who are over the age of 18 are welcome to visit the Library for reference use of printed items, and to use the study space. All Library users are expected to abide by the Library regulations.

You can apply for a visitor pass for one year using the online Visitor Access Request form (unavailable during exam restrictions).

You will need to bring a valid photo ID and confirmation email to the Library Welcome Desk on level one of the Library, where staff can set up your access.

At certain times of the year visitor access will be restricted to prioritise use for University of Surrey students, so please always check our website in advance of any visit, or give us a call on +44 (0)1483 689235.

Sixth Form/FE College students can request visitor access to the Library but need to bring a personalised letter or email of introduction from their Sixth Form or college, signed by an appropriate representative of the Sixth Form/FE College (photocopies are not acceptable). Students will also need to show photographic proof of their identity

Sixth Form/FE college students can apply for visitor membership Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 20:00. Access requests will not be processed at weekends, during University closure days or Bank Holidays. 

Sixth Form/FE college students are not to bring children (under 16) into the Library with them.

At certain times of the year visitor access will be restricted to prioritise use for University of Surrey students, so please always check our website in advance of any visit, or give us a call on +44 (0)1483 689235.

All Library users are expected to abide by the Library regulations.

*Surrey Maths School have an alternative membership application procedure please contact library@surrey.ac.uk

We are a member of SCONUL Access, a reciprocal borrowing and access scheme for staff and students at participating higher education libraries in the UK and Ireland. You will need to apply via SCONUL to use this scheme.

Once you have SCONUL access (Band A, B or C),  you can use the Visitor Access Request form to request access. You will only be able to complete your registration with us during staffed service hours, so please check these before your visit. Please ensure you bring your SCONUL confirmation letter and your student card from your home institution on your first visit to us. 

If you have SCONUL Band R access, you are only eligible for a 1 year Visitor Pass (not a SCONUL card) and visitor restrictions will apply.

University of Surrey staff and students are automatically members of the Library. When you start your studies/job you will be issued with a campus card that provides access to the Library and allows you to borrow our resources.

Children under the age of 16 may only visit the Library with an adult, who must accompany them at all times and be responsible for their safety and behaviour.

The Visitor Online Library service allows members of the public, visiting staff and students access to a range of online resources via a dedicated computer inside the Library building. The online resources available include a range of ejournals, ebooks, and online databases.  

Currently, the Visitor Online Library Service is a read-only service and library staff are unable to devote time to assist visitors in learning how to use the online resources available. 

Please ask at the Library front desk to use the service and the team will show you where the dedicated visitor computer is located on Level 1. 

Before you enter the Library you will need to register as a visitor and request a visitor access card. Please remember to bring along your photo ID when you visit. 

You will also be asked to agree to the terms and conditions of the service.  

You can find out how we deal with your personal information here. 

We try to make as much of our content available as we can to visitors. However, not all Library online resources are available due to publisher licensing restrictions.  A list of the online resources included in this service are available on the desktop of the dedicated computer. These include:

• AAAS - American Association for the Advancement of Science 
• ACM Digital Library 
• American Chemical Society 
• ASSIA Applied social sciences index and abstracts (Proquest) 
• British Nursing Index (Proquest) 
• Broadway HD 
• Cambridge University Press Journals Online 
• Drama Online  

• Econlit (Proquest) 
• Elsevier Science direct 
• Emerald Insight 
• Grove Music Online (Oxford music) 
• House of Commons Parliamentary papers (Proquest) 
• IOP Journal Archive 1999-2006 
• JSTOR 
• Knovel 
• LGBT Magazine Archive (Proquest) 
• Microbiology Journal Society 
• National Theatre Collection 
• Nature Journals 
• One Literature (Proquest) 
• Oxford Academic Books 
• Portland Press 
• Project Muse 
• Royal Society of Chemistry 
• Sage Journals  

• Springer Journals 
• Statista 
• Taylor and Francis ebooks
• Wiley Online 

You can search within each online resource, but we do not subscribe to all content in each resource. 

Some of our online resources are not available to visitors such as Euromonitor, Mintel Market Reports, LexisLibrary, Westlaw, the Financial Times. This is due to publisher licensing restrictions.  

Increasingly academic articles and research are being published and made available open access. The University of Surrey Open Access Repository is freely available to view online. 

Access to other open access materials such as books, journals, datasets and global open repositories can be found via this Open Access research resources list. 

You can also use the free Open Access Button to easily connect you with open access research without having to visit the Library. 

This Visitor Online Library service operates on a first-come, first-served basis. You may be asked to vacate the computer after a reasonable period (not less than an hour) if another person needs to use the service. 

To use this service, you must comply with the copyright regulations and our terms and conditions. 

You may not: 

• Use the service for commercial or business purposes
• Save, print or share any search results or articles
• Make copies of the information for the use of any other person or organisation
• Access any sites, software or applications outside this service from this terminal. 

Access to resources or access to the service may be withdrawn at any time.