How to Join the Library - Membership for Mental Health Staff

Who can become a member?

Staff employed by the South Australian Government for the provision of specialised mental health services, and working at one of the mental health units listed here are eligible to join the Library .

How to join

Simply fill out the Mental Health Staff Library Membership Application, and send it to the address below

A membership card will then be produced and returned to you by mail.

If you lose your card please report this immediately, to avoid possible use of it by another person (you would be held responsible for any costs of material borrowed and not returned!)

If you would prefer, you can come to the Library in person. The Services Desk, where you go to register, is open from 9.00 to 5.00 on weekdays only.

What happens then?

As soon as you are issued with a Library card you are entitled to use our specialist mental health library service. Below are some of the resources and services you may find useful.

Document Delivery Service

Most of our journals are available online, but sometimes you'll need an article that can't be accessed electronically. The Document Delivery service, will provide you with copies of journal articles - delivered free to your workplace or home computer, and loans of books - delivered by courier to your workplace. This service covers not only material held by our own Library, but interlibrary loans from other libraries.

You may have up to 50 items from the Barr Smith Library on loan at any one time, and the normal loan period is 10 weeks, with the option of 4 renewals. However we will recall the item sooner if it is requested by another user.

You may borrow books from any of the libraries in the University of Adelaide Library system, but loan periods may vary.

Your library membership also entitles you to reciprocal borrowing rights at Flinders University, and the University of South Australia. Click here for their borrowing rules and conditions.

To request loans or copies from Document Delivery click here.

You can collect books at the Barr Smith Library if that's convenient for you, or you can have items posted, or delivered by the University Library courier or Health Commission courier. Our library courier delivers and picks up from Glenside Campus on a daily basis, and from there material goes into the government courier system.

To return books, simply send them back via the government courier system, addressed to

If you work in the country we will post books to you, but you will be responsible for the cost of returns, which should be addressed to

Keeping Up to Date

I produce a bimonthly newsletter, in which I list additions to my web page, and new books which have been received by the library. You can subscribe here.

Additional Help

If you are having difficulty using our resources and sevices, or if you would simply like some basic tips on how to access them, I can arrange to visit you at you workplace to help you with whatever you need. I can also provide help with using individual databases such as Medline or PsycINFO. Ring me on (08) 8303 5214, or send me an email message to arrange a time.

There are ready-made literature searches on a wide variety of topics on my web page. These searches run on the catalogue, and on PubMed, and when you click the links they will retrieve whatever information is available at the time.

If you need more sophisticated searches you can perform them yourself using a variety of databases. If you're not confident that you can find what you need, or if you simply don't have the time, I'm available to do literature searches for you using Medline, PsycINFO and other relevant databases. All you need to do is ring me on (08) 8303 5214, or send me an email message