The library material is available to students, Erasmus students, University’s teaching staff, visiting professors, University staff, staff from partner institutions and external users who have an interest in the collections.

The Library has two rooms for study and consultation.

English studies (mon-fri 9am-4pm): open stacks

German studies (closed, books and journals available in English studies): collections in closed stacks

Iberian studies (temporarly closed, books and journals available in English studies): collections in closed stacks

Note that the reading room of French and Slavic studies is closed from 21 October 2019 for renovation work.
During this period the textbooks, some manuals and dictionaries of the French and Slavic studies room will be available in the English Studies room. It will therefore be possible to consult and borrow books on French and Slavic studies from the English studies room. The volumes on loan from the French and Slavic studies room may be returned in the English Studies room.
Some shelf locations in the rooms that house volumes from other language areas affected by works may not be available.

You can consult our website for a detailed list of items that cannot be consulted or borrowed at this time. This information will also be indicated in Minerva, where unavailable volumes will appear as "Document not available for loan".

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University of Milan students, Erasmus students, University teaching staff, visiting professors, University staff, staff from partner institutions and users from partner hospital centres, are all registered with the library’s borrowing service.
Interested external users can request temporary registration by submitting a completed application form filled in and signed by a member of the teaching staff or researcher from the University. The form can be collected in person from the library or downloaded from the Library Service portal.

Online services. Users can access the personal area of the Catalogue (My library account) and the bibliounimi app to:

• send a loan request; the reader has 3 days to collect the volumes;
• reserve books that are currently out on loan; when the reserved volumes are returned, the  library will email the user by the following day to notify them. The user then has 3 working  days in which to collect the documents;
• request a renewal.

Renewal is allowed starting four days from the due date, as long as the books have not been reserved by others. Renewals cannot be authorised for books that have exceeded their loan due date.
Failure to return items by their due date will result in the user being barred from services provided at all Library Service libraries until the item is returned; the return of an item more than three days after its due date will result in the user being suspended from using the library service for twice the number of days overdue.
Students who fail to return items within 60 days of their due date will have a temporary block put on their academic studies and will be excluded from exam sessions; the block will be removed once the borrowed item is returned; however, the student’s suspension from using the library service will remain in place.

The following items cannot be borrowed:

• journal issues;
• reference and general interest works: language and literature dictionaries, literature manuals, directories, encyclopedias, etc.;
• ancient, rare or valuable books;
• works published more than 60 years ago;
• damaged or fragile volumes;
• multi-volume books, even when the not-for-loan status is not indicated in the catalogue;
• volumes that are part of the library's special collections, except where otherwise indicated (see web pages of individual reading rooms);
• non-book material (CD-ROMs, audio/video material, microfiches etc.).

Further information on the shelfmark of items not for loan can be found on the web pages of the Library’s individual reading rooms (English Studies, French and Slavic Studies, German Studies, Iberian Studies), where you will find information on the specific classification system used. To access material held on closed stacks or items not available for loan (which cannot be requested online from the personal area of the Catalogue), users must submit a request using the special printed form and wait for the stated times until the material has been collected from the stacks, in accordance with the following procedure:

• English Studies reading room: all the material is available in the room;
• German Studies reading room: almost all the German Studies books are held on closed stacks. To consult these volumes, users must submit a request before staff access storage at 10am, 2pm and 4pm;
• Iberian Studies reading room: almost all the Iberian Studies volumes are held on closed stacks. To consult these volumes, users must submit a request in advance (in the morning for the same afternoon and in the afternoon for the following morning).

There are different types of loans:

a) standard loan

	Students and those of similar status	University teaching staff, technical and administrative staff, staff from partner institutions, and those of similar status	External users with  Malleveria*
How many items?	at least 20 volumes	at least 20 volumes	3 volumes
For how long?	30 days	60 days	30 days
Loan renewals	60 days as a whole (30 day each renewal)	120 days as a whole (60 day each renewal)	60 days as a whole (30 day each renewal)

* Guarantee form filled in and signed by a member of the University’s teaching staff. The form can be collected from the library in person or downloaded from the library’s web pages.

b) course reserve

	Biomedical and Science Libraries	Humanities, Law, Economics, Politics and Social Sciences Libraries
How many items?	4 volumes	4 volumes
For how long?	30 days	15 days
Loan renewals	60 days as a whole (30 day each renewal)	30 days as a whole (15 day each renewal)

c) Loan of Diritto allo Studio (Education Incentive Programme) books
The service provides access to course reserve material put together with the contribution of the Lombardy Region as part of the raft of measures in the Education Incentive Programme.
The service is provided in the following libraries:
Biomedical volumes
- Biblioteca Biomedica di Città Studi, via Valvassori Peroni 21
- Biblioteca del Polo centrale di medicina e chirurgia, via della Commenda 19
- Biblioteca del Polo centrale di medicina e chirurgia. Sez. di Dermatologia, via Pace 9
Science volumes
- Biblioteca Biomedica di Città Studi, via Valvassori Peroni 21
- Biblioteca di Informatica. Crema branch, via Bramante 65, Crema
Humanities, Law and Economics-Social Sciences volumes
- Biblioteca di Studi giuridici e umanistici. Sala del Settecento, via Festa del Perdono 7
- Biblioteca del Polo di mediazione interculturale e comunicazione, piazza Montanelli 11, Sesto San Giovanni.

d) Intra-system loans
Intra-system loans allow users to request and collect from the library books that are available for loan by other libraries in the System, with the exception of books from the Course reserve in sciences, humanities, law, economics, political and social sciences, and other material reserved for teaching and research purposes, reference works and damaged or fragile volumes.
The volumes must be returned to the library where they were requested. This service is reserved to students, Erasmus students, University teaching staff, visiting professors, University staff and staff from partner institutions.
Users can only access the service by using the online form available on the dedicated page, specifying the reading room where they wish to collect the volume requested.

f) Overnight and weekend loans
When the library is closed for a brief period, the service allows users to borrow volumes that are not normally available for loan. Some types of items are excluded from the service, such as old, rare and valuable volumes, dictionaries, encylopedias and special materials.
This service is not provided by every library. Up to three overnight or weekend loans can be requested at any one time. Renewal is not permitted. Any delay in returning items chaecked out on overnight or weekend loans will result in the user’s immediate suspension from the service for one year.

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The library provides the following interlibrary services to students, Erasmus students, University teaching staff, visiting professors, University staff and staff from partner institutions, as well as to users from hospital centres.

a) Interlibrary loans i.e. ordering books not held in the Library Service libraries from other libraries in Italy and abroad;

b) Document Delivery, i.e. ordering copies of journal articles and book chapters not held in the Library Service libraries from other libraries in Italy and abroad;

c) Intrasystem Document Delivery service, i.e. ordering printed copies of journal articles and book chapters from other libraries in the University. The service is not provided between libraries located on the same premises or adjacent premises: neither is it available at the via Festa del Perdono site or between the libraries located in the Città Studi district (Biblioteca di Agraria; Biblioteca Biologica; Biblioteca Biomedica di Città Studi;  Biblioteca di Chimica; Biblioteca di Fisica; Biblioteca Matematica; Biblioteca di Medicina veterinaria; Biblioteca di Scienze della Terra).

The services are provided with due regard for current copyright regulations and specific licence agreements covering certain types of resources, within the limits established for the purposes of preservation, and according to the conditions laid down by the supplying library.
Please note that the copy of the document requested through the Document Delivery service cannot be sent by email but must be collected from the library in person, regardless of its original format.

Service parameters:

Service	Number of requests
Interlibrary loan	at least 3 concurrent requests
Document Delivery	at least 5 requests per week

 

Users

Requests can only be made using the online form available on the service page for users.

The service is free of charge.

Contact details  For more information or specific questions, please write to the following email address: lingue.ill@unimi.it.

Delays in returning documents received through the interlibrary loan system, and damage to or failure to return borrowed materials will result in sanctions as envisaged under the borrowing service.
Users who fail to collect requested material or pay the reimbursement costs will lose access to library services until the account has been settled.

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Libraries and documentation centres at other Institutions

Through the interlibrary loan and Document Delivery systems the library makes its resources available to those libraries and documentation centres that request access to them.

Note that the reading room of French and Slavic studies is closing from 21 October 2019 for renovation work.
During this period the textbooks, some manuals and dictionaries of the French and Slavic studies room will be available in the English Studies room. 
Some shelf locations in the rooms that house volumes from other language areas affected by works may not be available.
You can consult our website for a detailed list of items that cannot be borrowed at this time. This information will also be indicated in the catalogue, where unavailable volumes will appear as "Document not available for loan".

Interlibrary loan: procedure and costs

Users are normally allowed a maximum of three concurrent loan requests. The duration of the interlibrary loan is 30 days from shipment.  
The borrowed material must be returned by the specified date. Items must be placed in a padded envelope and sent by registered post to the following address:

Università degli Studi di Milano
Biblioteca del Polo di lingue e letterature straniere
Servizio interbibliotecario - ref. Marta Papi
Piazza Sant'Alessandro 1
20123 Milan (Italy)

Books received on loan from our library cannot checked out but must be consulted on the premises of the requesting library only. The requesting library is responsible for the item until it is returned.
Loan requests are evaluated on the basis of the type of material and its state of preservation. The loan of serial publications (periodicals, encyclopedias, etc.), dictionaries, reference works, multi-volume works, non-book material and monographs printed in the last two years or published more than 60 years ago is not permitted.
The loan fee is set at 1 IFLA voucher for each volume, both in Italy and in Europe.  For some countries, particularly non-EU countries, a higher fee may be charged (2 or more IFLA vouchers per volume) to cover the higher postage rates.
If vouchers are not available:
• Italy: reimbursement of their equivalent value, amounting to € 8 for each IFLA voucher, to be paid by means of postal payment slip;
• outside Italy: international reply coupons may be accepted (7 for each IFLA voucher).
If the material has already been shipped, the requesting library must pay delivery costs even if the request is subsequently withdrawn.

Document Delivery (DD): procedure and costs
Photocopying requests are evaluated on the basis of the type of material and its state of preservation. Photocopying is carried out with due regard to current Italian copyright laws.
Digital copies cannot be provided.
Users are normally allowed a maximum of three concurrent document requests.
The service may be free of charge or for a fee, depending on the circuit used. In particular:

a) NILDE circuit (free)
Requests received from libraries that subscribe to NILDE will be processed free of charge via the NILDE portal. If the requesting library does not subscribe to NILDE, circuit b) will be used:

b) INTERLIBRARY circuit (charges apply)
The following fees apply to document delivery:
• Italy: ½ an IFLA voucher (€ 4) for every 20 photocopies.  ½ a voucher is added for every subsequent batch of up to 20 photocopies;
• outside Italy: 1 IFLA voucher (€ 8) for every 20 photocopies. ½ a voucher is added for every subsequent batch of up to 20 photocopies.
Where vouchers are not available:
• Italy: reimbursement of their equivalent value, amounting to € 4 for each ½ an IFLA voucher, to be paid by means of postal payment slip;
• outside Italy: international reply coupons may be accepted (7 for each IFLA voucher or 4 for ½ a voucher).

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Library staff help users navigate the library services in the first instance and to provide basic assistance for searching the catalogues and using the printed and digital collections.
With regard to the library's field of specialisation, by appointment the library provides personal assistance for specialist bibliographical searches and compilation of bibliographies, and help in developing effective search strategies. It also offers tips for the advanced use of catalogues and other bibliographic search tools, both printed and online, as well as help in finding information and even documents where possible.

The library subscribes to ‘Ask a Librarian’, the online reference service.

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The PCs in the library provide access to the University Catalogue, the University Library Service portal, the Digital Library and other key online resources for study and research.
Users must identify themselves using their University login details to browse Internet sites other than the University’s websites.

Users who have a University email account can access the University’s wireless network from their own computers, smartphones or tablets in Eduroam mode. The service is also available to external users from member institutions of the Eduroam Federation of Universities and Research Institutes (access to the Digital Library is not available to logged in external users).

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The library offers orientation and training sessions on the services, resources and tools available in its area of specialisation, with the general aim of improving information literacy.

Classes are taught in Italian. The schedule of courses and information in Italian are available on the University’s library service portal.

The teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature can request training sessions on specific databases for students preparing their degree thesis.
Library staff are periodically invited by the teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature to take part in one or more lessons to illustrate the basic resources available (Minerva, etc.).

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