A reading list is written for one module; a personal library is the handful of books that outlast it. The University of Nottingham (2024) tells new criminology students which four books are worth owning in print, texts to "draw on all the way through your degree". The University of Warwick (2026) names four key textbooks for new life sciences students and asks them to "think twice" before buying any.
EdCitation publishes this guide, built from those two lists and from library guidance at King's College London, Reading, Hull, Birmingham, Strathclyde, York and Washington, all read on 24 September 2026. It ends with the books kept together in EdCitation's Library, their references made in Cite a source and checked in Verify references.
What belongs in a personal library for your degree?
Four kinds of book earn a permanent place: the core textbook your first year is built on, a subject dictionary, a methods or skills book, and the manual for your department's referencing style. Most other titles serve one week or one module, and the library's copy will do.
Two real lists, side by side
| Kind of book | Criminology at Nottingham | Life sciences at Warwick |
|---|---|---|
| Core textbook | Newburn, Criminology, 3rd ed., 2017 | Berg and colleagues, Biochemistry, 10th ed., 2023; Madigan and colleagues, Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 16th ed., 2021; Lodish and colleagues, Molecular Cell Biology, 9th ed., 2021 |
| Handbook | The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 6th ed., 2017 | None named |
| Subject dictionary | The SAGE Dictionary of Criminology, 4th ed., 2019 | None named |
| Methods or skills | Finch and Fafinski, Criminology Skills, 3rd ed.; Babbie, The Practice of Social Research, 15th ed. | Dytham, Choosing and Using Statistics: A Biologist's Guide, 3rd ed., 2011 |
| Style manual | None named | None named |
| Every title, kept together | EdCitation's Library and My Books | Each reference from Cite a source |
Why the dictionary and the methods book matter
In our view these two are opened in more years than any other book, because no module replaces them. SAGE describes its criminology dictionary as over 325 entries from 120 academics and practitioners, each tracing a concept's origins and suggesting further reading (McLaughlin & Muncie, 2019). Wiley's page for its fourth edition describes Dytham's book as built around a key for choosing a statistical test, for students using statistics in practical classes and projects (Wiley, n.d.).
The style manual
Keep the manual for your department's style, in the edition it follows. For Cite Them Right Harvard that is the 13th edition, by Richard Pears and Graham Shields, and Bloomsbury updated the online version to it on 31 July 2025 (Bloomsbury Publishing, n.d.). The manual holds the rules; EdCitation's Cite a source builds each entry from the record, in Harvard (Cite Them Right) and five other styles.
What do essential and further reading mean on a reading list?
They are priority labels. Essential or core reading is what everyone on the module is expected to read; recommended reading supports it; further or background reading is optional, for depth or an assignment.
| University | The labels | What its library page says |
|---|---|---|
| King's College London | Core, recommended, further reading | Core covers the module's key concepts; further reading goes beyond its learning objectives |
| University of Reading | Essential, recommended, background | Tutors are asked to request about one copy per 10 students of essential reading and one per 20 of recommended, plus the e-book where there is one |
| University of Hull | Essential, recommended, background | Essential items must be held in print and in an unrestricted digital version; for background reading, access "cannot be guaranteed" |
| University of Birmingham | Essential, recommended, background | Lists often run week by week; the library tries to buy several copies of essential books, but you may have to reserve one |
The rows come from King's College London (2026), Reading (2026), Hull (2026b) and Birmingham (2025).
What the labels mean for your own shelf
A label says how hard the library will work to supply a book, not how often you will open it. Essential reading is the best supplied, so it is rarely the one to buy unless you use it weekly. Background reading is the least supplied, so find another route: a library near you, or a copy you keep. For articles beyond the list, use EdCitation's Find sources: about 300 million published works, searched by topic.
Should I buy, borrow or use an e-book?
Borrow or read the library's copy first, and buy only a book you will use most weeks in more than one module. King's College London (2026) says there is no expectation to buy a physical copy of core texts and warns against buying anything before a module starts; Strathclyde (2026) suggests waiting until classes show which books you are sent to most often.
Borrowing and reserves
Reading lets every student borrow up to 25 items for up to six weeks, subject to recall if someone else needs them (University of Reading, 2026). At the University of Washington, a textbook on course reserve usually goes out for two hours, and Washington Libraries (2026) tells students to ask the instructor before relying on an older edition from the shelves.
E-books: read the licence
A library e-book is lent on the publisher's terms. Hull (2026a) explains that some licences admit one reader at a time and can lock the book for 24 hours; others admit a fixed number at once, or usually 200 to 400 uses a year. Hull cannot provide Kindle e-books or publishers' e-textbooks, typically sold per student for a yearly fee, and Washington says that, with some exceptions, publishers do not let libraries buy and lend e-textbooks. King's law guidance suggests reading the e-book before buying print, to see whether you "get along" with it.
Buying second-hand
Strathclyde calls second-hand copies cheaper for a book needed briefly, but says to check the edition and condition first. For law, King's advises the newest edition, as an older one may lack a recent Supreme Court case.
Deciding, book by book
- Find the book's label on the module list: core or essential, recommended, or further.
- Check your university's catalogue for print copies, the loan period and the e-book licence.
- Search it in EdCitation's Library, where its editions sit in one list with publisher and year, a link to buy a paid copy and the libraries near you that hold it, and save it to My Books.
- Work from the library's copy for two or three weeks.
- Buy only if you open it most weeks and a second module needs it. Match the ISBN to the list's edition first, as our guide to ISBNs and editions shows.
- The day you start reading, turn its ISBN into a reference with Cite a source.
How do I keep track of editions?
Record the edition, year and ISBN of every book you keep, check the publisher's page each September, and cite the edition you actually read. A list's edition may be current, superseded or about to be replaced.
| Book | On the list | As read on 24 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Newburn, Criminology | 3rd, 2017 (Nottingham) | Routledge sells the 3rd, copyright 2017, 1,168 pages; we found no later one (Newburn, 2017) |
| The Oxford Handbook of Criminology | 6th, 2017 (Nottingham) | The 7th, published on 21 September 2023, with new chapters on victimology, hate crime, desistance, cybercrime and more |
| The SAGE Dictionary of Criminology | 4th, 2019 (Nottingham) | Still the 4th, April 2019, 608 pages, with up to 30 new entries (McLaughlin & Muncie, 2019) |
| Dytham, Choosing and Using Statistics | 3rd, 2011 (Warwick) | A 4th announced, 336 pages, dated October 2026 on Wiley's UK page and December 2026 on its US page (Wiley, n.d.) |
The handbook's row comes from the Institute of Criminology (2023) at Cambridge, whose launch page calls the seventh its most substantial revision yet.
Lists and records both slip
Nottingham gives the 2017 handbook's editors as Liebling, Maruna and Reiner. From the sixth edition's ISBN, 9780198719441, Cite a source returned Liebling, Maruna and McAra; the Library's records put Robert Reiner with Mike Maguire and Rodney Morgan, editors from 1993 to 2012. Records slip too: the Library's card for the seventh edition's ISBN, 9780198860914, shows 2017, the first year its record knows. Take editors from the title page and the edition from the ISBN.
How do I keep track of what I have read?
Keep a reading log: for each book, the edition, the chapters or pages read, a line on its argument, and the full reference, written as you read. The University of Birmingham (2024) advises a record of all academic reading, noting topics, arguments, strengths and weaknesses, and every detail needed to cite it, page numbers included.
Where the log lives
York (2026) lists notebooks, documents, spreadsheets and reference management applications. Birmingham's reading list system lets students set a reading intention on each item, to see what is read and what is left. A log meant to last a degree belongs somewhere that stays yours; our guide to a reference list that outlives each module explains why a university account is a risky home.
EdCitation keeps what can be looked up: books in My Books, references tagged by module, and a reading list of sources bookmarked to read. Your line on each argument stays in your log.
How does EdCitation keep a degree's books together?
EdCitation's Library is the best home for a degree's worth of books, because they are scattered and the Library gathers them. Tracing this guide's editions took four publishers' pages, an institute's events page and two universities' lists; one Library search for the Oxford handbook, newest first, set six of its records side by side, from 1993 to the Liebling, Maruna and McAra record. You can look a textbook or scholarly book up by its title, author, subject or ISBN, browse any of 31 disciplines, and filter by kind, language, length and year.
What the searches returned
| Search, 24 September 2026 | What came back |
|---|---|
| "SAGE dictionary of criminology" | 19 records, the 2019 fourth edition among them |
| Criminology, kind set to Dictionary or encyclopedia | 166 books, up to Ruggiero's Keywords in Criminology, 2024 |
| Newburn and criminology | 11 records, Newburn's Criminology in records from 2007, 2012 and 2017 |
| Biology, kind set to Textbook | 2,821 books |
| Biology, Dictionary or encyclopedia, from 2015 | 26 books, among them Oxford's A Dictionary of Biology and Henderson's Dictionary of Biology |
Warwick names no dictionary; that last search is where to choose one.
What every card offers
Under each cover sit the authors, publisher and year, with a mark showing whether it can be opened in the Library or is a book to buy. From the card you can open the shop page for a paid copy, list the nearby libraries that hold it, save it to My Books, or take its reference in one click. Max adds the reading: more than 5 million books to open in your dashboard or borrow, which EdCitation gathered into one collection for students and readers.
What a free account keeps
A free EdCitation account keeps My Books, your reference lists and your reading list, saved to your account, so they follow you across devices, modules, years and courses. References take tags and filter by them, and a list pastes with its italics intact or saves as a Word document, a BibTeX file or an RIS file. Searching, My Books, the shop links and the nearby library copies come with that account. Max ($24 a month, $216 a year) adds reading and borrowing in the Library (Pricing).
Before an essay goes in
Given the dictionary's ISBN, 9781526436726, Cite a source, which needs no account, returned:
McLaughlin, E., & Muncie, J. (2019). Dictionary of Criminology. SAGE Publications.
It looked the book up rather than writing it, and that record drops "The SAGE", lists the editors as authors and has no edition. Corrected against SAGE's page and the edited book pattern (University of Queensland Library, 2026):
McLaughlin, E., & Muncie, J. (Eds.). (2019). The SAGE dictionary of criminology (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
One entry, with its own author, is cited like a chapter: see citing one chapter or entry. Dytham's ISBN, 9781405198394, came back complete: Dytham, C. (2011). Choosing and using statistics: A biologist’s guide (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Verify references, which is free and asks for no sign-in, returned the corrected dictionary entry, Newburn and Dytham verified, Dytham's with "Title, author, edition and year match a library catalogue record." It caught each slip we planted:
| Entry as typed | What Verify references said |
|---|---|
| Nottingham's version: Liebling, Maruna and Reiner, 6th ed., 2017 | "A library catalogue record also names McAra, who is not in your entry. Check the authors." |
| The 7th edition, dated 2017 | "The publisher's record dates the 7th edition 2023, not 2017." |
| The 6th edition, dated 2023 | "The publisher's record for 2023 is the 7th edition, not the 6th." |
| Maguire, Morgan and Reiner, 5th ed., 2017 | "no edition from 2017 is recorded" |
| Dytham, 4th ed., 2011 | "The catalogue dates the 3rd edition 2011, not the 4th." |
Each came back "check this", with the reason, never "not found". For the 13th edition of Cite Them Right, Cite a source answered "No book is recorded under ISBN 9781350477261" and invented nothing, so build that one from the title page.
Quick questions
Which books should I keep for my whole degree?
The core textbook your first year is built on, a subject dictionary, a methods or skills book and your style's manual; Nottingham's criminology list adds a handbook.
Do I have to buy the books on my reading list?
Usually not. King's College London says there is no expectation to buy core texts, and Warwick asks students to think twice.
What does further reading mean on a reading list?
Further or background reading is optional, for depth or for an assignment, and the library may hold a single copy. Essential or core reading, by contrast, is expected of everyone on the module.
Is an older edition good enough?
Sometimes. Ask the module lead, compare the publisher's notes on what the new edition changed, and cite the one you read; for law, King's advises the newest.
Where can I keep all my degree's books in one place?
EdCitation's Library. Narrow its catalogue by discipline, kind, language and year, save each book to My Books on a free account, and on Max, read or borrow among more than 5 million books.
References
- Bloomsbury Publishing. (n.d.). About Cite Them Right. Cite Them Right. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://www.citethemrightonline.com/about
- King's College London Libraries & Collections. (2026, July 10). Reading lists at King's: A guide for students. https://libguides.kcl.ac.uk/readinglistsatkcl
- McLaughlin, E., & Muncie, J. (Eds.). (2019). The SAGE dictionary of criminology (4th ed.). SAGE Publications. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-dictionary-of-criminology/book257266
- Newburn, T. (2017). Criminology (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Criminology/Newburn/p/book/9781138643130
- University of Birmingham. (2024, September 26). Keep a reading log. Reading strategies: A short guide. https://libguides.bham.ac.uk/c.php?g=689902&p=4942993
- University of Birmingham. (2025, February 18). Using ResourceLists to prioritise your reading. ResourceLists@Bham. https://libguides.bham.ac.uk/c.php?g=689743&p=4948287
- University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology. (2023). Public guest seminar: Launch of the Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 7th edition. https://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/events/public-guest-seminar-launch-oxford-handbook-criminology-7th-edition
- University of Hull. (2026a, August 6). eBook access information. Reading lists at Hull, 2020-2025. https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/readinglistpolicy/ebookaccessinfo
- University of Hull. (2026b, August 6). Reading priority tags: Definitions. Reading lists at Hull, 2020-2025. https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/readinglistpolicy/prioritytags
- University of Nottingham. (2024). Sociology and criminology UG reading list 2024-25 [Reading list, PDF]. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/welcome/documents/reading-lists/soc-criminology-and-sociology-ba.pdf
- University of Queensland Library. (2026, September 11). Book: APA 7th referencing style. https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing/apa7/book
- University of Reading. (2026, August 17). Finding books via your reading lists. How to find books. https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/books/reading-list
- University of Strathclyde. (2026, June 15). How to buy reading list items. New students. https://guides.lib.strath.ac.uk/c.php?g=653755&p=4787006
- University of Warwick. (2026, July 31). Textbooks. School of Life Sciences. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/study/ug/induction2025/week1andbeyond/textbooks/
- University of Washington Libraries. (2026, September 23). Does the library have my textbook? Frequently asked questions. https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/faq/textbooks
- University of York. (2026, September 10). Managing your reading. Skills guides. https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/skills/reading
- Wiley. (n.d.). Choosing and using statistics: A biologist's guide (4th ed.). Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Choosing+and+Using+Statistics%3A+A+Biologist%27s+Guide%2C+4th+Edition-p-9781119838128