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The Library of Trinity College Dublin

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Requests from Storage

The size and range of the Library of Trinity College Dublin means that only a small proportion of its stock is on the open shelves to be browsed. The bulk of the collection is in Closed Access Bookstacks or Stacks, held in storage areas either on campus or the Santry Book Depository near Dublin Airport.

In order to view the items a "Stack Request" must be made.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, material from Stacks locations can be delivered to the Berkeley, Early Printed Books, Hamilton, or John Stearne Medical Library Service Counters by using the Automated Stack Requests (ASR) procedure and selecting the appropriate location during the process. However, some books - mainly older material - cannot be delivered via ASR and must be requsted using a call slip - the catalogue will indicate this. Journals must also be requested by call slip.

Whether the material can be borrowed depends on the category of reader requesting it and the category of material. For example, no-one may borrow material from the Early Printed Books or Manuscripts and Archives Stacks.

Items with the shelfmark in format "Numbers. Letters. Numbers"- e.g., 39.u.182, 71.t.53 - may generally be requested via ASR but only for use in the Early Printed Books Reading Room.

For undergraduates, only four Stack Requests in total may be be open at any one time; more requests made will be ignored. For staff or postgraduates, a total of five Stack Requests are allowed.

The Online Catalogue will tell the user if the item is in storage by listing one of the following locations:

  • Berkeley Stacks
  • Early Printed Books Stacks
  • Manuscripts Stacks
  • Ussher Stacks
  • Santry Stacks
  • External Storage, Journals (however, many issues with this location will be available electronically)