Why do I have to select catalogues by location ?

You do not have to restrict your search to a particular M25 location zone. However, it should be noted that the M25 Consortium covers a large geographical area. Therefore, should you wish to travel to any of the libraries that hold the resources you require, you may find it helpful to limit your search to the zone in which you are located. Restricting the number of catalogues searched may also give a more manageable set of results.

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What is the coverage of the location "zones" ?

To help focus the coverage of your search, the M25 Consortium has defined three geographically exclusive zones:

Inner: Centred on Westminster and the City, and spanning the River Thames, the Inner zone corresponds to Transport for London's travel zones 1 and 2.
North: Covers the area outside of the Inner zone that is north of the River Thames. Extends as far as Buckinghamshire and parts of Oxfordshire in the north-west, Cambridgeshire in the north and Essex in the north-east.
South: Covers the area outside of the Inner zone that is south of the River Thames. Extends as far as Berkshire and parts of Oxfordshire in the south-west, West Sussex in the south and Kent in the east.

Notes:

Some multi-campus library services will appear in more than one zone.
Some campus libraries are very close to the irregular boundary defined by the River Thames. For InforM25 purposes, each library location is limited to just one of the three zones defined above. Two examples are St. Mary's University College, Twickenham Information Resources Centre (North zone) and the University of Greenwich Maritime Campus Library (South zone).
To select a more precisely defined group of institutions, see the following question, Can I choose my own set of catalogues ?

The institutions within each zone are listed below. As you will see, some institutions have been combined, such as 'King's College London/Courtauld Institute of Art'. This is because the institutions share a single library catalogue (and thus appear as a single entry on the Search-catalogues service pages). Further institutions will be added to the list as their catalogues become available to InforM25.

Inner Zone
University of the Arts London	Middlesex University
Birkbeck, University of London	Natural History Museum
City University	School of Pharmacy
Goldsmiths, University of London	Queen Mary, University of London
Imperial College London	Royal College of Art
Institute of Education	School of Oriental & African Studies
King's College London & Courtauld Institute of Art	Thames Valley University
London Business School	UCL (UCL Library Services)
London Metropolitan University	Victoria and Albert Museum (National Art Library)
ULRLS - Senate House Library/Heythrop College/Sch. Advanced Study	The Wellcome Library
London School of Economics and Political Science	University of Westminster
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary History
London South Bank University

North Zone
Anglia Ruskin University	Natural History Museum
Brunel University	The Open University
Buckinghamshire New University	Oxford Brookes University
University of East London	St Mary's University College, Twickenham
University of Hertfordshire	Thames Valley University
Imperial College London	UCL (UCL Library Services)
London South Bank University	University of Westminster
Middlesex University

South Zone
University of Brighton	Oxford Brookes University
Canterbury Christ Church University	University of Reading
University of Greenwich	Roehampton University
Imperial College London	Royal Holloway, University of London
University of Kent	St.George's University of London
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew	University of Surrey
King's College London & Courtauld Institute of Art	University of Sussex
Kingston University	Thames Valley University
Natural History Museum

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Can I choose my own set of catalogues ?

Yes, you may select as many or as few catalogues as you require. To do this, go to the InforM25 Search Catalogues service, and thence the choose from a list of catalogues option. This will display a list of all the currently available catalogues, from which you may make your selection. (That selection will not be restricted to any geographical zone.)

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How do I change the selection of catalogues to search ?

Changing your catalogue selection can be done as follows:

If you have selected catalogues using the interactive M25 'zone' map, either: follow the New search option to choose different zones; or use the select catalogues from list button to choose your own set of catalogues.
From the Search Results page, follow the New search option.

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Can I select catalogues to search based on my access rights ?

Yes, by using the InforM25 Visit a library tool

Declare your institutional affiliation plus your user category and perform a search. Near the top of the Search Results> page there is a Library Catalogues option. This will:

Take you to the Search-catalogues service and automatically pre-select all those institutions listed in the brief results display
or
Take you to the Search-catalogues service with a single institution pre-selected from a full result

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How can I find out which catalogues are likely to contain relevant material ?

To identify institutions that have particularly strong collections in the required subject(s), undertake the following procedure:

First, select the Find a Library service from the InforM25 home page.
This will display a List of all M25 Consortium Libraries. Under Step 1a can be found a pull-down menu of subject terms. Use the left-hand mouse button to select the subject terms you require. Please note that you do NOT need to qualify your selection by selecting any geographical zones.
Press the Search button in Step 2. You will then be presented with the (similar looking) Search Results page, which lists only the relevant institutions.
To transfer to Search-catalogues, press the "Go" button.
You will see that the relevant catalogues have been pre-selected. You may now proceed with your library catalogue search.

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How do I search all the available catalogues ?

There are two ways of doing this

From the Select catalogues by location page, click on all three zones on the interactive map; they will then be highlighted. (Alternatively, ensure that none of the zones is selected. The system by default equates this with the selection of all zones.) Then press the "select catalogues" button under the map.
From the Select catalogues to search page, rather than tick each catalogue option box, press the "Select ALL Catalogues" button at the bottom of the institutional list. You will see that all of the option boxes are automatically ticked.

Note: For some searches, selecting all available catalogues may give a large number of results.

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