When you cannot find a specific book title in UC Library Search, the Library may be able to find it at another library or buy a copy for our collection.

Request from Another Library

If UC Library Search shows that UC San Diego does not own the print book you are looking for, the Library can help you get it at no cost to you.  We have agreements with the other UC libraries, other San Diego area libraries (Circuit), and libraries throughout the country which will send books to UC San Diego for you to use. Learn more about requesting books, articles, and more.
 

Using the Public Library

If you are looking for a newer title in high demand or you want to use an e-book or e-audio book, we recommend using your local public library. San Diego residents can get a public library card from San Diego Public Library (SDPL) or San Diego County Library (SDCL) to request and get on the waiting list for a print title and/or e-book or audio books.  You can also make a book purchase suggestion to the San Diego Public Library.

Free e-book resources

• The Internet Archive offers over 20,000,000 freely downloadable books and texts. There is also a collection of 2.3 million modern eBooks that may be borrowed by anyone with a free archive.org account.
• UC San Diego Library supports various Open Access e-book (and subscribe to Open e-journal) efforts - see Open Access e-books guide for links to MIT Open, Luminos Open (from UC Press), and more. See also Knowledge Unlatched's Open Research Library for over 15,000 open books.
• Millions of electronic books are available to all users in the HathiTrust Digital Library. Full access is available to all and allows reading of out-of-copyright items (generally those published prior to 1928 for people residing in the United States) and US government documents. UC San Diego students, faculty, and staff may login with SSO to download entire books or journal volumes; general public may save individual pages as pdfs.

Recommend a Purchase

We welcome purchase recommendations from all library users with a UC San Diego email account. Your recommendation will be evaluated based upon the Library's collection development policies and current budgetary constraints. To recommend a purchase, fill out the recommend a purchase form.