Services & Regulations
Library Services
Library Services are open Monday to Friday, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm except on holiday seasons and other previously communicated dates. Library Services are available either by e-mail (bibliotecaidl@fc.ul.pt) or in person (Room 1.1.01). Users are advised to consult Library Regulations for more information.
Reference and Research Service
The Reference and Research Service provides assistance for the correct use of the local resources and/or those at distance, regardless of the format. This service provides:
Assistance or instruction with using the library, including locating materials and using basic reference sources.
Assistance in the search and recovery of information using the library’s catalogue, other libraries’ catalogues databases, scientific journals portals and other web information.
Assistance identifying library materials needed to answer a question.
User Education Service
As a part of its commitment to serving the university community’s research needs, the library offers many opportunities for its constituents to learn more about the library and its resources. Library instruction is offered via classroom instruction, class lectures, and individual instruction and is completely customizable based on individual needs. Library users who wish to learn even more about the library and how to do research can request it to bibliotecaidl@fc.ul.pt.
Reading Services
Users may consult all the documents available in the Reading Room. Consulted items should not be re-shelved by users, but be left on the dedicated bookshelf.
The Reading Room collection’s holdings are organized by shelf mark according to UDC thematic areas. Within the thematic areas, books are shelved alphabetically according to the next segment of the shelf mark. Material stored at the Library Depository (journals, books, cartographic and multimedia items – except digital thesis) may be consulted in the Reading Room upon request (Room 1.1.01).
Documents Loan
The loan is the provision of bibliography for reading outside the Library for predetermined periods of time and comprises Home Loans and Interlibrary Loans.
Most of the documents in the collection of the Library are available for borrowing. In order to ensure that they are properly conserved or to facilitate their more intensive use, some loan limit measures are enforced: some documents are not available for loan and others have a restricted availability. The following documents cannot be borrowed: reference works (encyclopaedias, dictionaries, catalogs, atlases and similar works), serial publications (journals and magazines), old, rare and valuable documents, and any other document that those responsible for the Library consider should not be borrowed. Among the documents that may be borrowed, some are subject to restrictions, which are as follow: documents from the recommended bibliography, multimedia and cartographic documents and other documents whose loan those responsible for the Library deem should be restricted.
Home Loans
In order to borrow material from the Library, you must be registered in the library system. The registration is free of charge and must be done in the Library’s helpdesk (Room 1.1.01). Loan periods are those mentioned in Art. 10, n.4 of the Library Regulations.
Borrowers can request recalls on items charged out to other borrowers. Requesting a recall prevents the borrower who has the item from renewing it. Recalls remain valid for 24 hours after notification of its availability. Items on loan can be renewed if they have not been recalled by another borrower. All loans may be renewed three times unless a hold or a recall has been placed. Renewals may be done in person, by e-mail or by phone until 2:00pm of the due date.
Late return of recalled or held items will be treated as overdue and all borrowing privileges of the borrowers, including loans, renewals and recalls, will be suspended until the items are returned. In cases of persistent non-compliance the loan interdiction may last for the same number of days as the delay.
Borrowers must return their loans to the Library Helpdesk (Room 1.1.01) or before the due dates.Interlibrary Loans (ILL)
The Interlibrary Loan Service comprises access to documentation (books, book chapters and journal articles) that is not part of the Library’s collection, by means of a loan from other national or foreign library and/or documentation center.
Internal users requests must be submitted via a proper form [PT | ENG], and handed over to the librarian or sent by e-mail (bibliotecaidl@fc.ul.pt). The service costs are paid by the user and are defined by the lending institution. The requisition period is also defined by the lending institution. Institutional users requests must be submitted via a proper form [PT | ENG] and sent by e-mail (bibliotecaidl@fc.ul.pt). For additional information on the Interlibrary Loan Service of the IDL Library, please see Art. 12, n.2 of the Library Regulations.