The Library

Please note that some of the services listed below may be currently unavailable due to COVID-19 guidelines. Please see the Library website homepage for current service availability. 

The skills you need to develop will be distinct to you and your research project. The Training Needs Analysis will help you identify skills you need to work on or develop, and your supervisor can also provide support and guidance for your development needs.

The Graduate School's Research Training Programme (RTP) will equip you with the skills and competencies required to complete your research degree.  Sessions include workshops and seminars such as finding research information, using NVivo or SPSS to analyse your data, Writing at Research Level and managing your literature using Reference Management software. The RTP is mapped to the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, which describes the knowledge, behaviour and attributes of successful researchers. To book find out what sessions are running book on SAM.

Recordings of past Research Training Programme sessions are accessible via the RTP module in MyBeckett.

Getting Started with resources

• Use the Discover search from the library homepage for fast and easy access to our resources both books and journals.
• Start your research in subject specific academic databases selected by your Academic Librarian, available in your online subject guide on the Library website.

• Contact your Academic Librarian Team and Skills for Learning, you can use the Get Help form to arrange a 1:1 appointment with an Academic Librarian or Academic Skills Tutor, to get help with finding information and other academic skills.

• Join the Research Training Programme sessions run by the library on Advanced Literature Searching, Keeping up to Date or Reference Management on SAM. You can access recordings of past sessions from the Research Training Programme module in MyBeckett. 
• We have a wide variety of online resources (ebooks and ejournals) available to use 24/7
• We have large print collections from which you can borrow up to 25 items at once. We also offer a postal loans service for PGR students outside the LS postcode area
• Researching for a PhD you will probably need access to more resources than one university library. You can:
  • Request an ebook to ask us to purchase resources we do not currently have available. 
  • Or you may want to use the Interlibrary Loans Service can help you get resources from other libraries.
  • Use the SCONUL access scheme to visit other university libraries
• Find out what a PhD (or other research degree) thesis looks like by consulting EThOS the British Library collection of theses.
• Use the Post Graduate Study room at Sheila Silver library on City campus or the silent study spaces at Headingley.

Getting Started with IT

• Download Microsoft Office 365 for free on up to five devices and save your work via OneDrive with 1TB of storage.
• Connect your own device to eduroam Wi-Fi and connect to WiFi networks on the Leeds Beckett, and many other University campuses.

Further support and guidance for postgraduate research students is provided by your Academic Librarian Team.