Membership
Joining the library has never been easier, and membership provides a whole range of benefits.
Benefits of joining
You don't have to join to be able to use the facilities within the library and we are open to external visitors, staff and students based in our hospitals or on placement. However, signing up to join the library has many benefits, such as being able to borrow books and other resources such as laptops and reminiscence items.
When you have a library account, you will be also able to manage your borrowing and reserve books online, as well as use our inter-library loan (article and book request) service.
​
You would also need to be a member of the library to access us 24 hours a day, which is useful if you wanted to work during unstaffed hours.
Who can join?
Membership is available to all University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust staff. If you are working in any of our hospitals but are not employed by the Trust, it may still be possible for you to join. We have membership schemes in place with staff groups that allow access to our resources including Ambulance and Community staff, so please ask a member of staff if you are unsure. ​
​
A link to the DCHS (Derbyshire Healthcare Service) Library can be found here.
​
University of Nottingham students who are based at Derby or Burton respectively, are entitled to full membership. Students from other institutions can also join, providing they are on a current placement within the Trust.
​
​If you do not meet any of the above criteria, it is worth asking a member of staff if you can join, as our eligibility list is quite extensive! However, if you are not allowed to join and borrow, you may still be allowed to use either library and its resources and facilities.
How do I join?
The easiest way to register for the library is via our self registration page which can be reached by clicking the button below:
Once you have submitted your online form, you will have 30 days in which to complete registration by coming into the library to confirm your ID. At the same time, you can collect your barcode sticker* which has your unique borrower number, and will allow you to borrow from us.
*If you are a University of Nottingham Student, we will use your existing student card barcode.
If you are a DCHS member, you can register with us, or any of our partner libraries (Kingsway or Chesterfield) and you will signed up to use all three sites. However, please check the individual library opening times and out-of-hours arrangements. To visit the DCHS dedicated library site, click here.
My account online
When you sign up, you will be given login details for your library account on Koha, our library catalogue and management system. (Don't worry if you forget the login details you can just contact us to have them reset!)
Your account online allows you to check what loans you have, to renew and reserve items and to request articles. You can also put in requests for stock purchases and view lists of books (such as prescribed reading lists and certain book categories like 'books on prescription') as well as creating your own lists.
If you would like some help with using Koha and your online account, you can visit our help page here.
Membership eligibility can also extend to an OpenAthens account which gives you access our online resources, such as e-books, journals and evidence-based reviews and other useful tools, like clinical calculators and videos. OpenAthens is a separate login that can be used to unlock the many
e-resources that we as a Trust subscribe to, as well as national subscriptions.
Signing up for an OpenAthens account is very simple and the online form can be found here.
​
When selecting the organisation simply start to type and then select University Hospitals of Derby and Burton from the drop down. Registering with an NHS e-mail address or university e-mail address will make processing your account quicker.
You can also view our e-resources page to find out more about what you can access.
​
If you have an existing OpenAthens account with another organisation, you can request to change your organisation here.
​
You can also watch our video on the registration process below.
Student membership
While you are on a placement with us, or if you are based at one of our sites, you are welcome to join our Library.
Your membership will be for the duration of your time with us. We have service agreements with the University of Nottingham and the University of Leicester, but welcome students from other institutions too, such as Derby, Wolverhampton and Sheffield Universities.
​
​
We operate on a different system to the university libraries, so you will not be automatically members, and you will need to register with us separately. You can then use our own library management system, Koha, to check your account and to view the catalogue. Please remember to return all borrowed items before the end of your membership as they cannot be returned to your University library.
​
More information on borrowing, our catalogue and borrowing limits can be found on our collections page.
You can sign up using our Self Registration online form, using your University e-mail address as your contact.
​
When you come into the library to confirm your membership, we can use your existing student card (if it has a barcode) as your library card. If you don't have a barcode, we can issue you with one of our own barcode stickers.
​
​
Sign up to KnowledgeShare
KnowledgeShare is a system that allows you to stay up-to-date with current research and evidence by delivering personalised email updates, catered to topics that you are interested in, and delivered at a frequency to suit you.
​
There is also the facility on Knowledgeshare to view all of our training opportunities and to book onto sessions easily.
​
You will need an existing UHDB OpenAthens account to sign up, where you can also select your areas of interest and the frequency of the e-mailed content. If you are a DCHS member, then you will need to go to their website to sign up for an account, but you may still be able to book onto a skills session once registered.
​
Click on the KnowledgeShare logo below to go to our signup form:
