Below are details of planned service downtimes which may affect library services.
When users are borrowing /renewing books they are currently receiving a notification suggesting they have returned the item. This is an error and this has not actually happened. If you visit your library account the correct information is displayed. We have reported this to our system supplier and they are working on fixing this problem. You can ignore the message.
Users are currently not able to download eBooks for offline reading via the EBSCO Mobile app, on android phones. This is due to a recent update to android. EBSCO are working to fix this for early 2025.
The British Library is currently experiencing a system outage which has affected all of their services although some are now resuming. . The British Library Catalogue and Ethos are both unavailable. From 16 January 2024 the British Library have started to accept some document supply orders but the service is still not fully available.
What users can do if they need documents:
You can still make interlending requests and we will try and source them from other locations or from the limited service the British Library is provided . There are only a few that we cannot source from elsewhere. However, requests may take a little longer than normal to be supplied.
If you are interested in following what is happening at the BL and to be aware of services coming back online they have a temporary blog: https://blogs.bl.uk/living-knowledge/2023/11/cyber-incident-update.html
As a result of the recent cyber attack on the British Library, the Ethos theses database is still unavailable. Therefore, links to this database from Books+ (WCD and Library Search (EDS), will not work or will give error messages. There is no estimated fix date yet.
Advice to users:
Try the following as alternative routes:
1. Check the institutional digital repository of the institution where the thesis was submitted
Searching the holding institution's digital repository the institution can normally be identified from the detail record. For example in books+
2. Check Open Access Theses and Dissertations https://oatd.org
3. Check Proquest
https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/dissertations/fromDatabasesLayer?accountid=10637 NB. Sometimes this will link through to an institutional repository and sometimes to Ethos. If it is Ethos the link will not work.
If you have any questions about the above or are experiencing other issues with any of our services please contact us.
Need to contact us?
Email lib.helpdesk@uea.ac.uk
