Library

HCA’s specialist libraries are dedicated to all aspects of the creative arts. With libraries on both the College Road and Folly Lane campuses, they jointly offer access to over 30,000 books, subscriptions to journals and magazines, audio-visual materials, and access to thousands of online resources.

This invaluable resource is entirely student-focused, whether it be supporting your written work,  inspiring your practical pieces or developing your creative process. These bright and open spaces provide a friendly and relaxed environment in which to learn and study your practice and hosts a range of workshops, talks and societies throughout the year.

To find out more email library@hca.ac.uk or keep up to date with the library on Facebook and Instagram.

Take a look at our College Road library here.

All of our professional staff have backgrounds in art and design and share your passion for the creative arts. Whether your looking for a specific book or don’t really know what you’re looking for, they will use their extensive knowledge and expertise to help you find what you’re looking for, and even some things you didn’t know you needed.

We subscribe to a number of specialist electronic resources, which are also available off-campus via the ATHENS single sign-in service, including; JSTOR, EBSCO’s Art and Architecture Collection (over 1000 international art and design journals), the Bloomsbury Design Library, Applied Arts, Popular Music and Cultural Studies platforms, Vogue archives back to 1892, e-books and e-journals.

The Library’s page on StudentNet also provides students with a range of links to additional resources such as recommended websites, research tips and referencing tutorials.

HCA Library’s online catalogue can be viewed from any PC, tablet or mobile. Access the catalogue directly at http://hlcollege.cirqahosting.com

As a member of The British Library’s Inter-library Loan and Document Supply Service, students also have access to books and journals from a network of libraries across the country for a small fee. Meaning that if we don’t have it, we can find it.

HCA libraries have quiet study spaces, colour printing, scanning and photocopying as well as access to college wi-fi and open-access computer suites installed with the latest creative software.

As well as subscribing to a wide range of magazines and journals HCA is home to an extensive back catalogue of printed material. So if you want to keep up with the latest trends or track the styles through decades of publications it’s all possible at HCA.

Digital Arts Centre and Media Suites

The Digital Art Center is a hub for all our digital skills and resources at HCA. Whether it’s step-by-step technical demonstrations of the latest design software or printing your final projects on our industry-standard printers, this is the place.

  • IT Suites with specialist software available on Apple Mac and Windows PCs.
  • Open access areas.
  • Quiet study areas in Library spaces with Assistive Technology.
  • Exhibition quality large format inkjet printers.
  • Sound & video production areas.
  • Animation facilities.
  • Virtual Learning Environment.
  • Free access to Microsoft Office 365 for up to five devices with 1TB of cloud storage.

This professional suite gives you the opportunity to explore moving image using multi-platforms and devices and create moving images for film, animation, cinemographs and immersive experiences.  You will access industry-standard software including:Adobe Premiere, Animate, Final Cut, Tag Tool, Madmapper and a range of programmes that support computer games design and interactive media. You will also discover new software for moving image creation and virtual reality.

This well-equipped suite with a range of machines together with flatbed scanners and Wacom drawing tablets will fully support you to develop digital drawing and image manipulation skills.  Using the latest software in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign & Lightroom, you create new designs and images for print and screen.

We have a number of 3D printers and a wealth of expertise to assist you when creating 3D objects using AutoCAD.  Our wide format printing studio enables you to produce high-quality digital prints in excess of four meters long, print banners, professional standard photographs, and print on a range of media such as: canvas, transparent film, fine art papers, and photo papers.