Electronic article delivery
Increasingly articles can be sent direct to your desktop as secure electronic documents (SEDs). Unlike photocopies which can take days to reach you in the post SEDs are normally available within 24 hours. If you would like to use this facility please select Yes on the Electronic Delivery field of the request form. The Adobe Reader and the FileOpen plugins are required to read SEDs, but all campus computers should already have this software installed.
Accessing your documents
There is a known issue with Windows 7 pcs, please see the Known Issues section below for further information and instructions.
The British Library will send you an email informing you once your document is available. This email will include the order/request number in the header subject line and will contain the link to your document.
Step one: Click this link to download and open the document. Note, you must be online at the time in order to do this.
Step two: You will be able to revisit and view the document by following the link for up to 14 days, but you will only ever be able to print it once.
It is advisable to print the article immediately - on an Open Access PC do not close the document or log out until you have printed it out.
If you have any questions, or encounter any difficulties is opening an SED PDF then please contact us. SEDs will only be supplied to University of Leicester email addresses.
Installing FileOpen and Adobe Reader
If you are using your own computer, on or off campus, then you will need to ensure you have both a copy of Adobe Reader as well as the FileOpen plugin. These are freely available for download:
- Adobe Reader - Adobe
- FileOpen - British Library
Download a test document from the British Library’s FileOpen site to check that you will be able to open SEDs before you request any documents be supplied electronically.
Known Issues
While FileOpen and SEDs will work for many operating systems (Windows, Macintosh OSX, Linux), there are some known issues with some.
Windows 7 - If you are using a computer with Windows 7 installed, you must read and follow the guidance in Instructions for downloading Secure Electronic Delivery Documents - Windows 7 users only before opening your document.
If after installing the plugin you are unable to access the test SED, please contact us. For further information see the British Library's page on FileOpen and SEDs.
Distance learning students
By default we will supply distance learning students with print copies of articles and book chapters from the British Library. However, if you wish to opt in to receiving electronic documents please notify us in the Comments field of the request, or contact us directly
