Other ICAEW helplines

Telephone helplines, email and web chat support are available from Technical and Ethics Advisory Services, Student Support, Members and other teams.

See contact details and opening hours for all helplines and support.

We can help answer questions on a wide range of accountancy, tax, legal and business topics using the material in our collection.

To get an idea of the range of enquiries and research we commonly deal with, take a look at our enquiry service page.

We are available from 9:00 – 17:00 Monday to Friday (UK time), except for Wednesdays when we open at 10:00.

We are closed on bank holidays in England and Wales.

ICAEW members and ACA students automatically have full access to online resources via our website and can use all of the Library's services.

Members of ICAS, Chartered Accountants Ireland and GAA institutes have limited access to Library services.

See Who can use the Library & Information Service? for detailed information.

Members of the public can use our enquiry service for a fee. We charge £15 per 15 minutes of research time. Payment should be made in advance.

The Library in Chartered Accountants' Hall is not open to the public without prior appointment.

We offer instant, full text access to hundreds of eBook titles on key business and reference topics.

Browse the A–Z by title or browse by subject.

Members in eligible firms also have access to the Bloomsbury Accounting and Tax Service.

You can browse and borrow books in person from the Library. We also offer a free postal loan service.

See Borrowing books for information about who can use the service, how many books you can borrow, how to request items, and more.

Provided no other member has placed a reservation on the book, you can renew it up to four times.

To renew a book please go to the online catalogue and click on 'Renew My Materials'.

A step-by-step guide to the online renewal system is available from our renewing books page.

If you wish to return books in person, you can safely drop them off at the Library enquiry desk in the Business Centre at Chartered Accountants' Hall.

You can also post any returns to:

Library book returns
ICAEW
11 Copthall Avenue
London
EC2R 7EF

We have over 80 current journals and an archive of over 800 additional titles in our collection, as well as offering online access to hundreds of business, management and trade magazines via EBSCO Business Source Corporate Plus.

Use the Library search tools to locate articles or periodicals in our collection.

Check the journals section to browse online magazines by topic, title or search directly.

Visitors to the Library can also browse and read a wide range of journals and magazines in person. If you are planning to visit the Library to see specific titles, please email us in advance at [email protected]. Many older journals are held in an off-site store but can be brought to the Business Centre to consult.

We cannot provide direct remote access to all databases, but the enquiry team will be happy to help with your research and can email you documents or search results.

Visitors to Chartered Accountants Hall can access databases on PCs in the Business Centre. See our databases page for more information about what's available.

Yes, we can post or email articles, book excerpts and model documents to you – see our page on document supply for charges and information on how much we can copy from books and journals.

We also offer a postal loan service for borrowing books.

Yes, we can produce client screening reports, checking individuals or entities against global risk and compliance data.

This service is free of charge but only available for ICAEW members and ACA students. We will carry out a maximum of three name checks from a single firm or member per week.

Check our client screening FAQs and make requests online.

Yes, we can help genealogists who are tracing their family history and want to find out more about ancestors who were accountants.

Our Accountancy Ancestors database lists over 7,500 obituaries and biographical profiles, and over 7,000 portraits of accountants from 1874 to 1965.

We can also help with research on the history of accountancy firms – see our guide Trace the history of an accountancy practice.

Most of our services are provided free. We only charge for reports from a small number of specialist databases and for some special extended research.

Our page on Library & Information Service charges explains which fees apply for ICAEW members, ACA students, members of other accounting bodies and other users.

Yes, we are located in the Business Centre in Chartered Accountants' Hall in London. However, the Library is not open to the public without prior appointment.

The Library is staffed from 9:00 – 17:00 Monday to Friday (UK time). We are closed on bank holidays in England and Wales.

See our opening hours and location for more information.

Find out more about facilities for visitors.

If you are planning to visit the Library to see specific books or resources, please email us in advance at [email protected]. Many older titles are held in an off-site store but can be brought to the Business Centre to consult.

The Library welcomes offers of donations of relevant material for its collections. Offers of donations should be made by email to [email protected] including a list of items (please include the author, title and publication date of the resource as a minimum, and any other details you have available such as condition).

If items are accepted for our collection, delivery costs will need to be covered by the donor.

Please note that once accepted, all donations become the property of the Library, and as such may be disposed of at a later date.

Based at ICAEW's main UK office in London, the Library was established in 1871 and has been part of Chartered Accountants' Hall since it opened in 1893.

Find out more about the Library, including our history and our 150th anniversary in 2021.