Library and Knowledge Services

Sign up for a library account

Register for a Library Account to start borrowing books and gain 24-hour access to our Education Libraries. You’ll also be able to request books, articles and information searches.

You will receive a welcome email, usually the next working day, with instructions on how to activate your Library Account.

Sign up for an OpenAthens account

OpenAthens is your key to freely accessing the majority of our information resources in full-text, such as articles, journals, and ebooks. When registering, use your NHS email address for automatic verification.

About us

Library and knowledge specialists work closely with all healthcare staff, trainees, and students, providing their unique expertise to support individuals and teams with clinical decision-making, research, and lifelong professional development.

Library and Knowledge staff are able to bring reliable, up-to-date evidence to healthcare, supporting informed decision-making and helping to deliver real change.

Borrowing books

You can borrow up to 10 books at a time from any of our libraries within the Trust, as well as being able to request books from other NHS libraries across Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.

All of our books are issued in four-week periods. Books will automatically renew twice after your initial loan date, giving you a maximum loan time of 12 weeks per book. After that time, you will receive an alert stating that the books must be returned. Alternatively, you can contact staff at your site library who may be able to arrange for another renewal.

Sign up to our Newsletter

Sign up to our mailing list to receive updates on new resources, journals, books, skills workshops, how-to guides and much more!

Contact us

All three of our Education Libraries are open and staffed from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.

There is an Education Library at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, William Harvey Hospital, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital. All three libraries feature comprehensive book stock available for loan, computer access, study areas, and 24-hour access.

Library staff are on hand to answer any questions you may have about finding research, books and articles, and to demonstrate the information resources that we offer to all staff. Remote services are also available, including evidence searches, article sourcing, and information resource discovery, ensuring that the best knowledge and evidence is always at the fingertips of staff and learners.