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.

Opening hours: from Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 7:30 pm, loan and return services are guaranteed from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.
The books are held in the library’s reading rooms and are arranged by subject.
Users can browse the University Catalogue from the computer terminals located on the ground floor.

After identifying the volumes in the University catalogue, users are free to search for the items in the rooms without assistance.
Display units in the Sala Pentagono (floor -2) contain the latest issues of current journals. 
To consult all previous years’ issues, users should contact the journal distribution desk in the room.
Before leaving return materials to the desk or by placing them onto the trolleys in the reading room. The library staff will arrange for items to be returned to the right place.  

Study in reading rooms. To read your own materials, you have to reserve a seat through our web portal  or mobile app  "lezioniUnimi". 

For more information, please consult the Charter of Services.

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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 libraries' loan 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.

The loan status of an item will be indicated in Minerva , the University Catalogue. In any event, old, rare, valuable works and musical scores cannot be borrowed. There may also be specific conditions governing the loan of non-book materials (music CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.).
Materials may be borrowed on a personal, non-transferable basis. The loan ends with the return of the volumes by the due date, in the same condition as at the time of borrowing. Volumes can be collected by a third party on presentation of a written letter of authorisation and a photocopy of the requesting party’s identity document.

Online services. Users can access the personal area of the Catalogue:

send a loan request: the reader must wait for an availability notice sent by the library; he then 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 as long as the books have not been reserved by others. Renewals cannot be authorised for books that have exceeded their loan due date.

Seat reservation is not required to borrow or return a book.

Failure to return items by their due date will result in the user being barred from using the services provided at all Library Service libraries until the item is returned; the return of the item more than three days after its due date will result in the user being suspended for 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.

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?	No limits	No limits	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 teaching staff from the Humanities area. The form can be collected from the library in person or downloaded from the Library Service portal or 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.

d) Intra-system loans

Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 9am-12pm, 1pm-4pm

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.

The service is provided by the library’s Main Desk, the European Documentation Centre and the library’s International Studies Section.
To request materials, users must fill in the online request form, wait for the confirmation email  and go to the library during opening hours to collect them in person.

e) Accessing and borrowing books in other branches of the library:

History Collection (shelfmark DP.ST.)
Volumes must be requested in advance as follows:
- borrowing: place requests through the University Catalogue;
- in-library use: reserve by emailing spser@unimi.it

 

Request/Reservation	Collection
by 9.30am	from 11am on the same day
from 9.30am to 1.30pm	from 3pm on the same day
after 1.30pm on Friday	from 11am on the following Monday

Law-Politics Collection (shelfmark DP.G.)
Access to collections by appointment (spser@unimi.it). Department of International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies (via Conservatorio 7, 3rd floor of the Department, room number 28).
Opening hours: Monday-Friday 9am-2pm

Library Collection of the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods  (shelfmarks DP.E. and M.8.)
The collection is housed in the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (via Conservatioro 7 – Milano); volumes must be requested in advance by sending an e-mail to: segreteria.demm@unimi.it

EDC Collection – European Documentation Centre (shelfmark CDE.)
The collection is held on open shelves on the 3rd floor of the library; it can be accessed during the library’s opening hours.
Desk opening hours: Monday-Friday 9am-1pm / Reading room opening hours: Monday-Friday 9am-7pm; 

Collection of the Documentation Centre of the Department of Social and Political Sciences (shelfmark SO.)
The collection is available in the reading room situated on the 2nd floor of the Department of Social and Political Sciences (rooms 211 and 212), via Conservatorio 7 (accessed from via Passione 13)
 

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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 System. The service is not provided between libraries located on the same premises or adjacent premises.

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	3 concurrent requests for students, 6 for teaching staff
Document Delivery	3 concurrent requests for students, 6 for teaching staff

After locating the required material and identifying the library to send the request to, users must fill in an online request form. The Bibliographic Information Service can provide assistance if required.
Articles or essays held in the University’s Digital Library cannot be supplied electronically, since all users with a University email address (@students.unimi.it or @unimi.it) can freely access all its contents even off-campus.
The service provided is free of charge.
The office will immediately notify users of the delivery of requested material but books can be consulted in the library reading rooms only.  
Please note that users of the Biblioteca di Scienze politiche can request books directly from the libraries of the University of Milan-Bicocca and the University of Insubria (Como and Varese campuses) without having to contact the interlibrary loans office.
The volumes requested can be consulted for a maximum of 20 days.

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 will lose access to library services until the account has been settled.

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.

Requests can be sent by post by email (spill@unimi.it).

 

 

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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 libraries provide a unified remote reference service called BiblioHELP (Ask your Library).
BiblioHELP home page offers you answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about our services.
In addition, using an online form, requests for guidance and basic assistance (information on library services, simple bibliographical queries, advice on search strategies and resources) can be sent to the libraries, while enquiries to the Digital Library (electronic resources) and to the University archives can be sent via dedicated email addresses.
Requests will be answered within 3 working days.

 
The library also provides assistance in the advanced use of catalogues and other bibliographic search tools, both printed and online, particularly for:

- locating dissertation materials
- using the University Catalogue 
- searching the Digital Library (resources for Political and Social Sciences)
- navigating the Internet (for bibliographical searches only)

To make an appointment please contact the circulation desk, send an email to spref@unimi.it or phone 02 50321131.

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Libraries offer a photocopying, scanning and printing service with self-service machines, available to all users. Within the limits of existing copyright regulations, these printers can be used to:

Make photocopies
Print documents from a USB drive
Scan non-published materials (class notes, summaries of volumes, charts etc.) to a USB drive.

Pre-paid cards to use the printers can be bought from the dedicated vending machines. Each card has a value of 5 Euro (125 credits) and is non-rechargeable. Cards must be stored properly, in order not to damage the magnetic stripe on the back.
For each print, credits are deducted which correspond to the price of the print
The following prices and credits apply to photocopies, prints and scans:

A4 black&white: 0.04 Euro (1 credit)
A4 colour: 0.24 Euro (6 credits)
A3 black&white: 0.12 Euro (3 credits)
?A3 colour: 0.48 Euro (12 credits)

Card-vending machines are currently available at the library.

The Italian copyright legislation allows photocopying of up to 15% of the total pages of any volume or paper file. Users can also print the results of queries performed in the Digital Library, within the limitations provided for by the relevant subscription license.

Copying is not allowed if it can damage the item.

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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 unimi University login details to browse Internet sites other than the University’s websites.

Users who have a University email account can also 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. The other external users can ask for a temporary guest wi-fi account at the libarary, for use within the university only.

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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. The courses are for students, professors, researchers and technical-administrative staff of the University. Classes are taught in Italian.
The schedule of courses and information in Italian are available on the University’s library service portal.
At the request of the teaching staff, the library also organises courses on databases specific to the area of Political and Social Sciences: see list.

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