Researcher Skills

Discover our training, events, and guidance to help you to develop your research skills and knowledge. Our online Library Services and Research Support training sessions cover a wide range of topics.

From learning how to use the Library effectively, to data management plans, we have something for you at all stages of your research career.

We also provide guidance on copyright and plagiarism, writing your thesis, and bibliographic management to help you to develop your research skills and knowledge.

A 160-second video introduction to the Library for postgraduate researchers

A 160-second introduction to the OU Library for postgraduate researchers.

We will explore:
• Resources at the OU,
• Resources beyond the OU,
• Guidance webpages, and
• Training and help.

Resources include print materials in the library building and electronic materials online.

A video tour of the library building at Milton Keynes is on the OU Library’s YouTube channel.

Use Library Search on the library website to explore our collections.

Sign in to Library Search using your OU login details to access resources.

The library has a wide range of databases.

You can find a list of these databases on the Library website.

Works by OU researchers, including theses, are published on the Open University repository, known as ORO.

Research data is published on the OU data repository, known as ORDO.

We can help you access information that is not held in the library.

Use the Suggest New Titles form to request the library purchase a book.

Use the inter-library lending service to borrow an item from another library.

If you are based in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, you can visit other University libraries through the SCONUL Access Scheme.

If you get stuck, there is guidance available.

There is a dedicated Help and Support section on the main library website.

There is also a separate library website for OU researchers.

You are not alone, OU Library staff are here to help.

You can contact the Library Research Support team using the contact us form on this page.

You can see our programme of live online training sessions on the main Library website, which are also recorded so you can watch them any time.

There’s also a programme of training sessions geared towards research skills listed on the Library Research Support website.

You’ll also find some handy checklists for new researchers, covering further helpful information.

We hope you enjoy using our library services. Please reach out for help if you need it.