Built Environment

Most print books for the Built Environment are based at the Adsetts Library. You can search for print books using Library Search.

Library Search will tell you which library a book is in and what floor it is on. It will also tell you the shelfmark of a book: there is more about shelfmarks in the next box on this page.

You can borrow most print books using your SHUcard and the simple self-service machines at either library, which are available 24 hours a day. You can put in request for books which other people have borrowed or which are at the other campus library.

Shelfmarks are used to organise and order the books on the shelves. A book will have its shelfmark on its spine, or on its cover if that is not possible. The shelves in the library will have signs at the end telling you which shelfmarks which are on those shelves

A shelfmark has two parts:

• A number code, which describes the subject area. Books on the same subject have the same number and will be together on the shelves. There is a number sequence 001 to 999 which runs through each library.
• A few letters, taken from the start of that book's title or the family name of its author. These appears after the number.

An example of a shelfmark might be: 370.152 COT, which is for a book on the subject of academic skills, written by an author with the family name Cottrell.

Books are organised by number order first, and then in alphabetical order of the letters on the books that share a number. So you need to remember or copy both parts to find the book.

It is possible for multiple books to occasionally share the same shelfmark, so make sure that you have the right title and edition when you find the book. 

Some useful shelfmark subject numbers for Built Environment are:

• Subject                                            Shelfmark
• Architecture                                        720
• Buildings                                             690
• Building Estimates                              692.5
• Building Law                                       346.044
• Building Information Modelling (BIM)  690.0285
• Building Materials                                691
• Construction Contracts                        346.02
• Housing Policy                                     363.5
• Planning                                               711
• Project Management Planning             658
• Real Estate Economics                        333.3
• Structures                                             690.1
• Surveying                                             526.9
• Valuation                                              333.32

This is a pocket handbook series from the publisher Routledge.

Build your knowledge

If you find words or terms that are new to you, look them up using the encyclopedia AccessScience or subject specific dictionaries within the Oxford Reference Online collection.

Many books will be available as ebooks. These are web-based and can be access remotely online: unlike some ebooks you may have used before,  these are not fixed to a single device.

You can find ebooks by using Library Search

There are also some special ebook collections and resources for Built Environment. We have more details about them in the boxes below.

While we try to get versions which give you the maximum possible freedom, there can occasionally be some restrictions on what you can do with particular ebooks, such as a limit to the number of people who can read them at once.

The Library have a range of eBook collections. 

You can search Library Search to find eBooks about many different subjects and that approach may be quicker than searching individual collections.

You can also browse the collections and you can do this by going to the collection and browsing by subject.

ebook collections related to New Engineering Contracts (NEC).

eBook collections that cover many different subjects.

If there's a book which you need but which we don't have in stock, we can ask another library to loan you a copy, or to email you a copy of an individual  chapter or section. This can be done through our document supply service.

If you think a book may be useful for other students or staff as well as yourself, you can also request that the Library buys a copy. We can't promise to buy everything, but will do what we can for feasible requests which are relevant to courses at Sheffield Hallam.

The curated reading lists are intended for personal rather than academic use. They are designed to help you discover books in the library which can support you in your student life. They have been created by the Library in collaboration with the Hallam staff networks, the Students Union, and the Student Wellbeing Service.