How many Books can you take out and for how long?

• Undergraduduates are entitled to 10 books and 4 DVDs.
• These need to be returned within 2 weeks.
• If you want them for longer you can renew the loan but only if no one else has reserved it.
• You can renew your loans up to 4 times.

Every Library Member (Thats you, the Student!) has a Library Account

On the library Discovery Catalogue you can see what your current loans are, create handy lists of books for later reference and renew your current loans.

Your username will be your student number and your password is your myNCAD password. 

Library Link: CONUL Access Scheme 

NCAD Library is a member of Library Link: CONUL Access Scheme (formerly known as ALCID), a co-operative access scheme in operation across a number of institutions. The Library Link: CONUL Access Scheme membership card gives access to the card holder to the participating libraries across the Island of Ireland. All full-time academic staff, doctoral and masters (research & taught) students can avail of the Library Link: CONUL Access Scheme.

A Library Link card entitles the bearer to read-only access to participant libraries - ie you cannot borrow materials from them.

To obtain a Library Link card, please call to the Issue Desk with your Student / Staff ID card, or email libraryloans@staff.ncad.ie

Please note:

Membership of the Library Link scheme is for one year, commencing in September. You must have your NCAD Student ID card with you as well as your Library Link card when you visit another library. Before visiting another Library Link institution, check for any special arrangements for visiting readers, and for opening hours. 

The participating institutions for the academic year 2024/25 are:

• Dublin City University
• Technological University Dublin
• Mary Immaculate College
• Maynooth University
• Queen’s University Belfast
• RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Royal Irish Academy
• Royal Irish Academy of Music
• Trinity College, Dublin
• University College, Cork
• University College, Dublin
• University of Limerick
• University of Galway
• Ulster University
• Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
• National College of Art & Design 

How to Use the Library

In this section you will find out how to borrow books, how many books you can take out, how the books are organised and about library fines.

Guide to the Library Collection

A Map of the Library

Using the Visual Resources Centre

NCAD readers have access to a range of high-quality images through the Visual Resources Centre and its databases, along with a large collection of DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs. Readers are welcome to browse and borrow from these collections. 

VRC staff are also happy to help with queries relating to these resources! 

The Dewey Decimal System

We use the Dewey Decimal System, This is a way of organising books by subject - great for browsing similar books on a particular topic!

The letters are usually the first three letters of the artist or author's surname, or sometimes the title of the book.

The numbers go from 000 to 999. These indicate the broad subject area. Often, there's a decimal point after the subject number, with further numbers and letters. This gives more detailed information about the exact subject of the book.

Here are the 10 main Dewey Headings: