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University Library

As a new student the University Library will form a central part of your academic career. Our major collections are housed in the Main Library, where expert staff can help students access a wealth of information sources.

Each School has a specialist Academic Liaison Librarian assigned to it. Our Liaison Librarians can be contacted by students for help with finding information sources or for any general issues to do with Library Services. Find out who your librarian is.

By September 2011 the first phase of a major redevelopment of the Main Library building will be complete. The main features of this work include:

• New entrance.
• Café including outside seating.
• Self-service for returning books as well as borrowing.
• Improved help desk layout.
• New group study rooms with easy options for booking.
• Dramatically improved décor, furnishings, heating, lighting and ventilation.
• Increased opening hours.
• Space for silent study as well as group and social study.

The second phase of this refurbishment will take place during the summer of 2012 and will focus on the two upper floors of the building.

Because of this year's redevelopment work, tours of the Main Library will not be available during Orientation Week. However, our staff will be running various events during Orientation Week to let students know about Library services so please look out for publicity. Brief orientation tours will be offered to all users once the building has re-opened. If you miss one of our tours, please just ask a member of our staff at any time if you need help finding your way around.

We also have substantial libraries on the North Haugh site for Physics / Mathematics (substantially refurbished in 2009) and at St Mary’s College in South Street for Divinity and Mediaeval History. 

The Library stock comprises over one million books, around 3,000 printed journals, an extensive media collection and other types of material. Over 400 online databases are subscribed to, and students have access to over 20,100 full-text electronic journals. Most of these e-resources are accessible 24 hours a day, both on and off-campus. 

The Library is also currently benefiting from signficant additional investment from the University in our print and electronic collections.

Our exceptional Special Collections Department houses around 120,000 rare printed books, particularly strong in Theology, Classics, History, English and Scottish Literature, as well as the University’s fine manuscript and photographic collections and the University archives, which date from the early fifteenth century onwards.

Generous loan periods, reciprocal borrowing rights with local and national universities, and a fast Interlibrary Loan service for obtaining material not in stock, ensure that you have easy access to resources. Self-issue and self-return terminals allow students easy access to borrowing whenever the Library is open, currently for more than 100 hours per week during semester.

There are more than 800 study spaces in the Main Library with an additional 400 spaces to be on offer by the end of summer 2012.