News and problems

Read authoritative, peer-reviewed entries covering all aspects of psychology written by experts from across the world up until mid-May with our free trial to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.  All entries are fully referenced and designed to be read in 30 minutes or less.  We already have Oxford Research Encyclopedias covering African History, Communication, Criminology, Education, International Studies and Politics, so it's great to have trial access to this one too. 

Accessing the encyclopedia

Click here to explore the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.

• If you are on campus or connected via the VPN, you should be taken straight into the resource. 
• If you are working off campus without using the VPN, choose the 'institutional login' link and log in using your University username and password.

We are delighted to present trial access to two new Oxford Research Encyclopedias for the next 60 days (until late May 2026), covering Climate Science and Environmental Science.  As with all the other encyclopedias in this series, each entry is intended to be authoritative, peer-reviewed, regularly updated, fully referenced, and designed to be read in under 30 minutes.

Like what you see?  

Please let your Faculty Librarian know if you enjoy what you see and would like these considered for your ongoing subscriptions.

Problems have been reported when logging into EBSCO resources, including the Discovery Service and the Business Searching Interface.  We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.  In some, but not all cases, using the VPN helped.

We have reported the problem to the supplier and hope the problem will be fixed soon.  

Access Engineering is returning an error message on campus whenever someone attempts to open one of its ebooks.  We have reported this to the supplier and hope normal access will soon be restored.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused.  If you would like help finding alternative resources, please ask a librarian in person or chat to us online.

Laptops you borrow from the lockers in the Library may block third party cookies by default.  This appears to interfere with authentication for many electronic library resources.

Solution

Click on the crossed-through eye icon in the web address bar at the top to allow third-party cookies (the icon should become an un-crossed eye), then reload/refresh the page (click the circular arrow in the toolbar or press F5).

Some clients have reported difficulty accessing British Standards Online (BSOL).  The problem does not appear to affect all users.  If you cannot download standards off campus, connecting via the University (GlobalProtect) VPN may resolve the problem.

We are waiting for the supplier to restore access.  We apologise for this ongoing service outage.

Update 20 February 2026 - We appreciate that some clients cannot install and run the University (GlobalProtect) VPN because they are required to use a secured workplace computer onto which they cannot install software. 

Requested action

If you have difficulties logging into British Standards Online (BSOL) - Please contact the IS Service Desk.  Initial investigations suggest this problem is complex and receiving more reports from affected individuals will help our IT team identify the root cause and fix the problem more quickly.  Please report the problem, even if you are able to connect via the VPN and then access BSOL.  The more reports IS receive, the faster they can fix the problem for everyone, including those who have no easy way to access these resources at present.

If you are also unable to use the VPN - Please also contact the Library, and we will do everything we can to help. 

Thank you all for your ongoing patience and cooperation while we work to resolve this issue.

Technical issues have been reported accessing Ebook Central ebooks.  Some clients are receiving the error message: "Sorry, your institution does not allow access to ProQuest Ebook Central from your current IP address. Please contact your librarian."

Solution

ProQuest, the provider of Ebook Central, has identified that the issue is caused by expired Ebook Central cookies and has created a tool to remove them and enable a fresh browser session.

To run this tool, click on this link https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/clearcookie/clearcookie.html

In the unlikely event that this does not resolve the problem, please clear all your browser data and then reload the webpage.

If you need any further help, please get in touch. 

The Rhino House website has been unavailable since September 2025.  We are investigating why the supplier has been unable to restore this resource.  

You can find a comprehensive list of audio, image, and video resources on our Audio-Visual Resources page.  If you would like guidance on the best resource for your project, please contact Greta Friggens (Faculty Librarian, CCI) to discuss which resources would best meet your needs.

The Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing at the University of Reading in partnership with Outside in World, are delighted to announce the latest event in their seminar series on translation for children - Arabic Young Adult Literature in Translation, streaming live from 5.00 - 6.30 pm on Thursday 23 April (and available afterwards as a recording). 

Find out more and sign up to receive the joining link on the Library blog.