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 for a total of 100 seats; there are also electrical sockets for the use of personal computers.

The volumes are placed on open stacks in the reading room and in the storage areas and are arranged in thematic sections in accordance with the library's classification scheme.

The reading room is primarily intended for the use of the collections and services. Admission to the reading room for the purpose of study using personal materials is permitted on a seat availability basis, as verified by library staff.

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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.

Almost the entire library collection is available for loan, except for:

• non-print materials (microfilm, CD-ROM, videotapes, etc.);
• dictionaries and encyclopaedias;
• atlases;
• periodicals;
• valuable editions;
• volumes from Sections A.;
• part of the archive and palaeography sections, with the exception of double copies;
• special library collections

For some library collections not normally available for loan, it is possible to request:

• an overnight loan (from 4 pm to 12 noon the following day)
• or a weekend loan (from 4 pm on Friday to 12 noon on Monday).
• Up to three short loans can be requested at any one time.

?The penalty for the delayed return of materials on short loan is suspension from loan services for a month.
The drop-off box for returning borrowed books is located in Cortile Legnaia, from 8 am to 7 pm, Monday to Friday.
Books will be retrieved from the box twice a day.
The return of damaged or underlined books will not be accepted.
It is only possible to return books belonging to the History Library.

To access the bibliographic information and orientation services you can:

• contact the information point directly in the Library
• request an appointment by calling 02 50312936 or by sending a message to prestito.storia@unimi.it

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.

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.

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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;

The service is provided through the Law and Humanities Library.

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

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.

 

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.
For the interlibrary loan service, please contact the Law and Humanities Library.

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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 library offers all users a self-service photocopying service which allows them to make photocopies and send print jobs from the library’s computer terminals , or their personal smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Service charges can be paid using the University badge distributed to students (Carta La Statale) or with cards which can be purchased from automatic card dispensers located on the University's premises.

Italian copyright law permits photocopying of up to 15% of the pages in a printed volume or journal issue. It is possible to print copies of Digital Library search results within the limits of individual licence agreements with publishers.
Photocopying is not permitted where there is any risk to the condition of the material.

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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.

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