Books may be borrowed for particular time periods depending on your year of study. They are arranged according to subject matter, using the Dewey Decimal Classification system.
School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics books written or edited by academics.
Print and online books are listed in the Library's catalogue.
The library has a growing collection of electronic books which can be found by searching on the online iCatalogue. You may also search by visiting our e-book collection. For example, click on EbscoHost ebook collection , tick the full text box then tick the search button to see a list of e-book titles that UKZN owns full text access.
There are a number of sites offering free ebooks (see links below) and of course you may find some full text on Google books
Reference books
These are books (at E.G Malherbe Library and the Cecil Renaud Library ) that are not loanable and may only be used in the library, for example, encyclopedias and dictionaries. They are identified by the prefix 'R' preceding the shelf number on the spine.
Course Reserves or Academic Reserve
The collection of prescribed and recommended books that are high in demand. These books are loanable for two hours can only be used in the Library. This collection is kept at the Circulation desk of each library.
NB: books are searchable by course or course code.
Be warned! Late material is subject to heavy fines!
Intercampus loan service: is available to registered staff and students expanding the range of books excludes reference collection and course reserve materials. It provides access to those books that are currently not available at the user's primary Library. The status quo remains for loaning period.
You can request a book from another campus through your My Library Account.
Interlibrary loan (ILL) service is whereby a patron of one library can borrow books or receive articles or chapters that are owned by another library around South African Universities.
You can request items online through the catalogue using My Library Account
At the moment, due to Covid, no books are being loaned within the country
Library accounts: setting up my library account is imperative, you have click on my library account and a box will open and click on set/reset password. Then you will receive an email (that was used during registration) click on the link (note that link will expire within 24 hours). This will provide access to the Interlibrary loan account and my account. This will enable you to renew books, track your items requested via interlibrary loan and be able to download articles requested from other libraries