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Visitor Information: Kimberlin

Visitor Information

Christmas Visiting Information
External library cards can be requested until Friday 13th December, and must be collected by 17.20 on Friday 20th December.  Visitor access to our library ends at 17.00 on Friday 20th December, and restarts on Thursday 2nd January – there is no access for walk-in visitors over the Christmas period.

Welcome to De Montfort University’s Library Learning Services. As members of the public, or a student from another university or college, you have access to our main Kimberlin Library. This is building 21 on our campus map.

Please be aware that Library Learning Services has other buildings on campus as well but these are only for use by DMU staff and students. You cannot gain access to them. This means that there is no access to the Law Library, or the book stock from the Law Library, for external card holders and visitors.

Whilst there is no car parking on campus for visitors to the library, there are plenty of local car parks because of our city centre location. Please see the final page of our campus map for details of local car parks. Short stay on-street parking may also be available in the evening or at weekends but is in heavy demand during weekdays.

All external users of our library have reference access to our Kimberlin Library, a large 4-storey library in the middle of our campus.  Reference access allows you to read the books and print journals on our open shelves.

Please be aware that you don’t have access to online resources, to our DVDs, library stack items or other media collections and you can’t book or go into the Postgraduate / individual / group study rooms or borrow laptops and other non-book items.  These are solely for use by current DMU students.

There are library regulations which govern use of our spaces by visitors, external card holders and DMU staff and students.  Whereas DMU staff and students may be subject to sanctions such as a fine or access restrictions if they breach these regulations, P800 card holders and visitors breaching these regulations have their access rights permanently withdrawn.  Please take the time to read through these regulations before visiting or applying to join our library.

Access to other resources, and borrowing rights, depend on what type of access you have:

If you’re studying / working at another university?

You can have 3 walk-in visits by coming into the Kimberlin Library during the “Walk-in visitor” hours shown on this page, in the same way as any other member of the public.  You need to show a form of ID such as a bank card, driving licence or your university ID card.

After the 3 visits, you will need to apply for SCONUL access to use our library – whether you are able to borrow books depends on what SCONUL band your home university assigns for you.

DMU use Eduroam as our WIFI provider, along with most UK universities.  You can bring your own device into our library and use the WIFI to remotely access the internet via your own university, but you have no access to DMU online resources and you cannot log on to our PCs.

SCONUL also run a summer access scheme for students on taught courses, so not for staff or for research students.  This scheme allows you to come in an unlimited number of times over the summer vacation, so long as you enter during our vacation hours, by showing your university student card.

This scheme generally opens at DMU on the Wednesday after the late May Bank Holiday and runs until the third week of September.

If you’re studying at a local college or a member of the public

A member of the public can have 3 walk-in visits by coming into the Kimberlin Library during the “Walk-in visitor” hours shown on this page.  You need to show a form of ID such as a bank card, driving licence or college card.  Each visit is one “enter the library / study / leave the library” event, not per day.  If you’re planning to stay and study for the day please bring a cold packed lunch with you or make use of the library’s café which is on our ground floor, so you don’t use two visits in a day going out for lunch.

You are welcome to bring your own device to work on, such as a laptop, but the university does not provide any form of guest WIFI so you cannot get access to the internet, or to any DMU online resources.  You also cannot log on to our PCs.

Under 18s:

Generally under-18s cannot come into our library except when accompanied by an adult, and only for a maximum of 30 minutes.  Parents and older siblings looking to bring children into the library with them should be aware of this restriction as it applies both to visitors and to DMU staff / students.

If you are under 18 and have a particular research need from our library, such as a collection of particular relevance to a project you’re working on, please contact our library in advance by email / in writing to enquire about access.

To gain access to the library as a student on a FE or HE course at a Leicester or Leicestershire school or college please see your home institution for details of the DMU Aspire scheme or our Evening / Weekend Reference card.  This card will give you access:

Mon – Fri 18:00 – 20:30

Sat 10:00 – 17:30

Sun 11:00 – 18:30

through until 30th June in your current academic year.

Please be aware that we will ask you for your reasons for joining when you apply so you will need to demonstrate a genuine research need to use our collection. 

Member of the Public:

A member of the public can have 3 walk-in visits by coming into the Kimberlin Library during the “Walk-in visitor” hours shown on this page. You need to show a form of ID such as a bank card, driving licence or college card for each visit. Once you have used your three visits you will need to apply for an external P800 card to continue entering our library.

A member of the public can also apply for an external P800 library card. This costs £60.00 for 12 months’ access and allows you to borrow up to 4 items at a time and access at the “P800 card holder” hours of access shown on this page. If you’re applying for membership as a member of the public, a link to our membership application form is here.

DMU Alumni:

DMU alumni are entitled to a free P800 library card as a former student. This allows you to borrow up to 4 books at a time but does not give you access to the PCs, or the online databases or online journals that you used as a student. Please contact the university’s alumni office who will provide you with confirmation of your course of study then apply for library membership here.

Staff / student from another university:

A student / staff member from another university is entitled to a free P800 card under the SCONUL scheme which gives university staff and students access to other universities’ libraries. Whether you can borrow items or not depends on your SCONUL band, which is decided by your course of study – undergraduate, postgraduate, full time, part time, distance learner etc. or if you’re a member of university staff. Apply online for the SCONUL access scheme here. Once you have successfully applied for SCONUL access and have an email confirming your SCONUL band and expiry date, apply for library membership here.

Hours of Access

Walk-in Visitor

Kimberlin Library
Term Time Vacation
Monday - Friday 08:45 - 19:30 Monday - Friday 08:45 - 17:00
Saturday 10:00 - 17:30 Saturday 10:00 - 15:30
Sunday 11:00 - 18:30 Sunday - Closed

No visitor access: 30th March – Friday 10th May 2019

Once inside you can stay until you choose to leave as the Kimberlin Library is open 24 hours a day.

P800 Card Holder (excluding Evening / Weekend cards for FE students)

Kimberlin Library*
Term Time & Vacation
Monday - Friday 08:45 - 20:30
Saturday 10:00 - 17:30
Sunday 11:00 - 18:30

No new P800 cards made 30th March – Friday 10th May 2019

*This library is open 24 hours a day all year round so holders of current P800 cards can enter the library all through our vacations, even on Christmas Day, New Years Day and Easter Sunday.

Although our Kimberlin Library is open 24 hours a day, there are restrictions on the hours when you can enter. Overnight this may mean that you can leave the library but then not get back in again until the following morning. Please be aware of this when making arrangements to stay in the library overnight and ensure you take all your belongings with you if you leave.

Please also be aware that visitors are not able to visit our library during our exam period. This is to ensure that we have enough study spaces for the increased number of our own students using the library at this time.

There will be no walk-in access for visitors during this time and no new external library cards will be made.

The closed period for visitors takes place from the start of April until mid-May each year. If you already have a P800 library card in use before the start of this restriction, your card will continue to allow you access during your usual hours of access but you will otherwise have to wait until visitor access resumes in mid-May before visiting our library or getting a library card made.