The Heythrop Library is owned and managed by the Jesuits in Britain who are committed to maintaining it as an ongoing resource for the Church, teachers, researchers and academics. An Expert Panel, drawn from academic disciplines related to the collections, advises on acquisitions and the Heythrop Library Committee advises the Jesuit trustees on strategic planning and management of the collections.
The Heythrop Library subscribes to over 230 periodicals in theology and philosophy and related disciplines. We also offer on-site only access to the Religion package of JSTOR (over 100 periodicals).
Readers may currently take up to six books out on loan for up to four weeks. A working collection of around 8,000 books is kept at the Heythrop Library reading room at the London Jesuit Centre – these are mostly books relevant to courses taught at the London Jesuit Centre. Other books from the main collections are available on demand to be delivered to either the Senate House Library or the London Jesuit Centre. Delivery takes 24/48 hours.
You need to be a member of either Senate House Library or the Heythrop Library to request books from the main Heythrop Library collection (ca. 140,000 modern volumes)
Since March 2023, we have asked our library users to supply testimonials, sharing how and why they benefit from the collection, library services, and the Mount Street reading room.
If you are a member and would like to contribute to the testimonials, please email us: heythroplibrary@jesuit.org.uk
The Heythrop Library holds over 200,000 volumes on theology, philosophy, biblical studies, church history, spirituality and allied subjects. The collection includes rare printed books and incunabula.
Paid-for membership (full)
If you do not qualify for free membership (see below), but have a serious interest in studying theology or philosophy, you can apply for paid-for membership. This costs £60 per year and includes the benefit of borrowing any of our borrowable books (on-site at the London Jesuit Centre, ca. 8,000 books), as well as over 140,000 modern volumes.
Reference-only membership fees
For just using the reading room at Mount Street, with its ca. 8,000 books, we also offer the following reference-only membership fees: £5 per day, £10 per week, or £30 per month. These reference-only memberships do not entitle the member to borrow any books or request books from the offsite store (ca. 140,000 volumes).
Free membership
Free membership is available to certain categories of readers including members of the Society of Jesus and other religious, any lay partners working in a Work of the Jesuits in Britain, former Heythrop College faculty staff, priests and seminarians, teachers of religious education, London Jesuit Centre students, current HE & FE students and sixth-form students, and those unwaged. To make initial contact about becoming a member of the Heythrop Library, please get in touch.
There are three ways you can access the majority of the Heythrop Library's collections:
1 If you are a member of any university library in the UK, you can access the Heythrop Library through your university's inter-library loans (or documents) services. They will need to contact Senate House Library's ILL department (link see below).
2 You can join the University of London Senate House Library. Membership costs £210 per year and gives you access to University of London collections including the Heythrop Library (except the materials at the Heythrop Library reading room/Mount Street).
3 You can apply for membership of the Heythrop Library. Membership costs £60 per year and includes the facility to have books delivered to the London Jesuit Centre and to use the library reading room at the London Jesuit Centre as a place to work.
Heythrop Library is open to anyone with a serious interest in theology or philosophy and the related academic disciplines represented in the collection. We welcome enquiries about using the library’s collections and reading room at the London Jesuit Centre. The next two sections of this FAQ answers most membership questions, or download the most current Reader's Guide (link below).
Once you have borrowed a book for 6 months, automatic renewals will stop, and you will either need to return the book(s), or renew it/them manually. To renew books manually, please
1. Go to our catalogue (https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/search~S3)
2. Click on "Login to your account"
3. Use your first name and surname (with a space, so "Sally Smith")
4. The Heythrop Library card number can be found on the back of your Heythrop Library card, without spaces: 019....
5. Click on '[x] Item currently checked out"
6. Renew all, or select those you wish to renew, and click on "Renew selected".
7. The system will show the new due date.
If this does not work, please contact us: heythroplibrary@jesuit.org.uk
Each book you borrow will auto renew up to 5 times(each time for 28 days), unless someone else requests it (see more under recalls). So in theory you can borrow a book for up to 6 months without doing anything. However, please be aware that our system will send an email informing you of having renewed abook. The email will look like this:
If you get any other kind of email, please read it even more carefully, as either someone else has requested the book you have borrowed from us, or you have come to the end of auto renewals. You can renew books manually.
Researchers travelling a distance to use the Heythrop Library are welcome to use bed and breakfast accommodation at the London Jesuit Centre.
When to request a book
If an available book’s location is marked as ‘Heythrop Mount Street’ it is available to be borrowed. If an available book’s location is marked as ‘‘STACK SERVICE’ [Offsite Store - Heythrop]’ this means that it needs to be requested from the offsite store/Crown.
Requesting books from Stack Service
Stack Service is the offsite store we use. When you find a book stored at ‘STACK SERVICE [Offsite Store – Heythrop CROWN]’ in the catalogue, please click on the request option.
Please note that when requesting books from the offsite storage facility every request defaults to being delivered to Senate House Library. However, Heythrop Library staff will check each request, and manually process them according to the requester’s home library. The following video illustrates this process: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k7F2pvIDSaPs9VxeAXWkfp5YD9w-ipt5/view .
Requests get processed 3 times per week:
If a request is placed before 2pm on a
Tuesday -> the book(s) will be delivered on Wednesday
Thursday -> the book(s) will be delivered on Friday
Friday -> the book(s) will be delivered on Monday
Please always wait for the email confirming that the book(s) has/have arrived.
Readers may currently take up to six books out on loan for up to four weeks.
How can I renew books?
1 Go to catalogue
2 Log in with your name and your Heythrop Library card number (starting with ‘019…’)
3 Click on x items currently checked out
4 You can then try to ‘renew all’, or select specific books and ‘renew selected’If you have problems with renewing, please ask for your books to be renewed in person, or by contacting us.
The following cannot be borrowed:·
* Periodicals
* Reference books (with red spine labels on books in our reading room)
* Restricted or fragile items (you will be informed as soon as we have assessed them)
Some items in the Heythrop Library collections are too fragile to leave the library. We cannot guarantee that all books ordered from the offsite store will be in a condition fit for borrowing until they arrive. The librarians will alert readers if fragile books need to be consulted as reference-only materials in the Mount Street reading room. Such decisions may be made at short notice. We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes and thank you for your understanding.