The British Library of Political and Economic Science or quite simply the LSE Library, located in the Lionel Building on campus, is the one of the world’s largest and finest libraries dedicated to the social sciences. As a PhD student, it’ll come to be a key resource on campus during your research journey. And for good reason. The library offers a host of services that you can avail of and here’s a quick look at them.
Research support
LSE library has several teams that provide a range of research support services ranging from data management to open access publishing and copyright advice. No matter what stage of your research you’re in, the research support team at LSE library can provide you with assistance and guidance on developing your data management plan and helping you share your research freely with the scientific community and the wider world. The team offers help in your prep to publish your research and provides guidance on copyrights for your work. Apart from this, they also have services to enhance your research visibility with citation analysis services to help you improve your research impact.
Data Access and SafePods
As a researcher, a key challenge you will face will be data access and this can become complicated if your research requires access to secure data. But fret not! LSE Library can provide you with access to secure data both on and off campus depending on the security measures in place. You can book a SafePod to access sensitive data while you’re on campus and you can work with a number secure of datasets for your research.
Training sessions and workshops
The library hosts several training sessions during the year that are directed at the PhD community at LSE. The topics for these sessions have in the past spanned research ethics, reference management softwares, publishing of books among others. Plus, in case you’re working on a review for your research, there is a specialised service for support to develop effective search strategies, using databases and findings papers.
LSE Press and LSE These Online
LSE Press publishes open access books and journals and makes high quality social science research more freely accessible to everyone. There are a number of books you can choose to read from and many scholarly journals to browse through. You can also access the online archive of PhD theses using the LSE These Online to get a glimpse into the collection of theses of past PhD students who’ve graduated from LSE.
Resource guide
Since the library has an extensive collection of resources, it can sometimes be time consuming to find the right resource. But this handy guide helps you navigate the web of collections easily. And in case you ever find yourself looking for materials that may currently be unavailable, use the “Get it for me” service and the team will help you find the materials you need.
The Library team
The most important resource in my opinion at the library is the wonderful team of librarians. Each department has a dedicated librarian that you can reach out to for assistance. You can always email them or book an appointment with them on StudentHub for issues related to using archives, finding resources and accessing data. From my personal experience, they’re helpful and can make navigating the research process less daunting.
Lastly, the library, of course, has a large collection of resources and books that you can borrow, a range of study spaces you can book for interviews and group work, as well as printing and copying facilities.
The library is quite a useful resource for PhD students at LSE and I would highly recommend spending some time familiarising yourself with the various services offered. For most queries related to your data access and management, the library is sure to have an answer.
