January Orientation for Visiting, Erasmus & Exchange Students

How to take out a book

Check out, renew and return books at main Library counters or at any of the FastLane terminals located throughout the Library.

If you're an undergraduate or postgraduate diploma student, you can borrow up to four books at a time from the Undergraduate Lending Collection books (LEN, S-LEN, or SJ).

If you're a Masters or doctoral student, you can borrow up to ten books in total:
Ten Open Shelf or Stacks/Storage books, including no more than four books from the Undergraduate Lending Collection (LEN, S-LEN, or SJ).

Plus, all students can borrow four Counter Reserve/Short Loan Collection books. These are Library use only, for five hours at a time.

Your subject Librarian

Each subject has a dedicated subject librarian who can help you find, evaluate and cite information for your assignments or research.

Subject Librarians:

• Provide essential and core resource suggestions on their individual websites
• Will help in finding books on your reading lists
• Assist in locating material for your assignment, essay or other research
• Give training on a range of information skills, including using the Library catalogue, how to cite references and avoid plagiarism, database searching, evaluating information, and EndNote
• Offer one-to-one advice on any aspect of using the Library’s services and materials

Please contact a Subject Librarian about:

• Books that don’t seem to be in the Library catalogue or on the shelves
• Course work that you don’t know where to start on
• Frustrations that you have when using the Library
• Times you find the Library useful!

What Library should you use

Trinity has 3 main Libraries: the Berkeley, Lecky, Ussher (BLU), the Hamilton and the John Stearne.

• The Berkeley/Lecky/Ussher Library Complex (or BLU as it is known) is located on campus. The collections located there are focused on the Arts and Social Sciences. The Nursing & Midwifery collection is also hosted there.
• The Hamilton Library is located at the East End of campus near Pearse Street. It is located on the second floor of the Hamilton Building. The collection is focused on Health Sciences, Natural Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics and Mathematics.
• The John Stearne Medical Library is located at the Trinity Education Centre at St James's Hospital.

The Stacks

Sometimes you will come across books in the catalogue that are located in the Stacks. As Trinity's Library has so many books, many of them are housed in Santry in what is called 'the Stacks'. These books can be requested and then picked up from your chosen Library counter. Undergraduates may not remove these books from the Library.

Library HITS courses

Library HITS courses will run through the first three weeks of term. They are to help you familiarise yourself with the Library and how it works, and how to make the most of it. You should go to at least one.

Your print account at tcdprint.ie

Your College ID card acts as a identification card for the Datapac service in the College Libraries and IT Services computer rooms. Before using the scanning and photocopying service you must credit your print account. This credit is different to topping up your TCard. You can top up at a kiosk or online with your student number and your printing PIN. You will receive your pin from helpdesk@tcdprint.ie

Print Anywhere

You can print from College computers but also from your own devices using Print Anywhere. Login to www.tcdprint.iefrom your device and select whether you want to print from a Mac or PC, upload your file to print, or email it to your print account.

Find a printer

When you send your document to print, you can print it from any printer on campus. Check the map below to see where they all are.

Your TCard account

TCard is the new Trinity College campus card. Your TCard is your student card. The TCard broadens the use of the current Trinity student ID card to include a cashless payment facility across the campus. Your TCard will allow you to access and pay for a range of services across the campus using the embedded electronic purse. This balance is separate to your print balance, so you will need to top up both

Where you can use it

You can use your TCard in a number of locations around College:

• The Buttery
• The Dining Hall
• East Dining Hall
• 1592 Restaurant
• Aras an Phiarsaigh
• Arts Café
• Academic Registry
• Hamilton Restaurant
• Westland Coffee
• The Science Gallery
• Sports centre
• Nursery
• Students Union
• St James Hospital
• Tallaght Hospital

How to top it up

You can top up your TCard online or at the top up machines in the Arts Building and the Hamilton concourse

Getting to off-campus buildings

Some of you will need to go to various places that aren't on the main campus. You'll find directions here

• St. James' Hospital
• Tallaght Hospital
• TBSI

Hittheroad.ie is also a really useful site to plan your journeys across all forms of Dublin transport

Leap cards

One of the easiest ways to use Dublin transport is to get a Leap card. They work across buses, LUAS, DART and Dublin Bikes in Dublin (and in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford!) You can either pay as you go or buy weekly, monthly or annual travel cards. If you are 19 and over, you should get a Student Leap card from House 6 as soon as you can. From the 18th - 29th September, the Leap card people will be in the Arts Building to get the cards processed on the spot. You'll need your student card, the application form and €10.00. After that, you can get them in House 6.
If you are 18 or under, you can still get a Child Leap card which has cheaper fares than the Student Leap.

Find your lecture halls

Not sure where your class is? Check the list of major lecture theatres

Find some food

Catering keep a list of Staff and Student Outlets on their website, along with opening hours

Find somewhere free to hang out

It can be hard to find places to go in the first few weeks. Here are a few places you can chill out without having to buy a coffee!

• Student spaces
• JCR Goldsmith Hall
• The Graduate Memorial Building (GMB)
• House 6 kitchen (First Floor)
• Arts Building: couches and seats etc on upper floors
• Hamilton: benches on ground floor
• TBSI Knowledge Exchange

Find the gates and their opening times

There are a lot of gates into Trinity, all with their own opening hours which can be hard to keep track of. You can always check the list on the College Maps page

Explore the campus from the comfort of your room

Watch our handy videos showing you how to get to key locations around campus