Textbooks and libraries

The University Library provides an essential service to all students and staff.

The Libraries role is to provide access to the information resources required by members of the University for research learning and teaching. There is a wealth of material to support learning and research at the University; over 1,300,000 printed volumes and an extensive range of high quality electronic resources. Many resources are accessible from off-campus via the Internet.

The email address for general enquiries about Library services and resources is library@sheffield.ac.uk.

When you register for your course you will be issued with a University Membership Card, known as a UCard. The UCard will give all University-registered students automatic access to Library facilities and services and will serve as a Library Card.

The Information Commons (IC) is a state-of-the-art information resource for use by any member of the University, although it is intended principally for undergraduates and it is open 24 hours a day!

Please familiarise yourself with this resource early in your first semester since it is an excellent place to study in a quiet and pleasant environment. In general, most of the books you will need as an undergraduate should be located in the IC, although some that are not listed on course book-lists may be in the Western Bank library instead. The STAR catalogue entry will give the location of the book, as well as information about its loan conditions (some books are for reference only, and may not be taken out of the library; others are "short-loan" books which must be returned within a few days).

The first year Physics lecturers will generally use a single course textbook, this book will be provided for you by the department.

Young and Freedman "University Physics with Modern Physics" 13th edition, ISBN 0-8053-8684-X, published by Pearson Addison-Wesley.

It contains many worked examples and a stock of problems and exercises used by tutors and lecturers. In addition it allows access to the website that is used for the problem solving exercises. Students MUST log onto the books assessment site, failure to do so will mean you will miss out on 12.5% of the available marks.

The following book is recommended for use with the first year laboratory course and should be purchased by yourself:

'Experimental Methods; an introduction to the analysis and preparation of data' by L. Kirkup (Wiley).

A few copies of this book are available in the Information Commons, but it is not expensive so you should consider buying your own.