Library and Historic Collections

A Million-Volume Library

The Library, on five sites over three campuses, is one of the largest and best equipped in Scotland, offering excellent resources to support your studies.

The largest site is Queen Mother Library (arts, science, education and social sciences) with nearly 700 study spaces. A further 600 seats are available at the other sites. Also on the Old Aberdeen campus, the Taylor Library and European Documentation Centre cover law with official UK and EU publications; Special Libraries and Archives are housed in King's College. The Medical Library on the Foresterhill Campus covers the Medicine and Medical Sciences disciplines, while the Reid Library at the Rowett Institute for Nutrition and Health focuses mainly on nutrition, both human and animal.

Our libraries hold over 1 million volumes with most easily accessible through our online catalogue. In addition to ancient papyri and archives, we also have access to thousands of books and millions of journal articles in electronic format on the web. One collection, for example, has over 40,000 recently published e-books in full text from top quality academic publishers. These resources can be accessed both on and off campus so you can study at your convenience anytime, anywhere.

The libraries have study spaces and PCs so you can use print and electronic resources together. The campus wide “wireless network” will allow you to use your own laptop in a library and connect to our electronic books and databases. You can even borrow wireless laptops for use within the Taylor Library.

New Library Project

For five hundred years the library has been at the heart of the University of Aberdeen and its collections have provided a focus for our academic community and for scholars from around the world. As the flagship project of the second phase of our Sixth Century Campaign, the University plans to undertake a £57 million project to build a new Library and Special Collections Centre, highlighting its commitment to lead education and research on a world stage. It is scheduled to open at the start of the 2011-2012 academic year.

Museums & Special Collections

As an ancient university, we are proud of our museums, archive collections and rare books, built up over 500 years, and exceptional in their richness. Special Libraries and Archives holds over 200,000 volumes printed mostly before 1840, and 4,000 archive and manuscript collections.

These are complemented by Marischal Museum and our six science collections (Anatomy Museum, Geological Collections, Herbarium, Natural Philosophy Collection of Scientific Instruments, Pathology & Forensic Medicine Collections, Zoology Museum). The University's museum collections are amongst the largest in the country and recognised as important to the Scottish Nation. All these collections are used to support taught courses in ways not possible in most other universities, and are available for individual study, research and enjoyment. Changing displays from the collections can be seen around the campuses.


A Million-Volume Library

The Library, on four sites over two campuses, is one of the largest and best equipped in Scotland, offering the very best learning resources to support your studies.

The largest site is Queen Mother Library (arts, social sciences, including the stock of the former Education Library, and science), with nearly 700 study spaces on six floors. A further 600 seats are available at the other sites. Also on the Old Aberdeen campus, the Taylor Library and European Documentation Centre cover law with official UK and EU publications; Special Libraries and Archives are housed in King’s College. The Medical Library on the Foresterhill Campus is for students of medicine and medical sciences. All library sites have facilities for disabled users.

We have over one million volumes in our collections, from fascinating ancient papyri to electronic journals, all easily accessible through our online catalogue. You’ll find an extensive range of electronic resources, and, in addition to the clusters of PCs in all libraries, you can borrow wireless laptops for use within the Queen Mother and Taylor Libraries or use your own laptop via the Hotspot service.

For more information visit www.abdn.ac.uk/library.

New Library Project

For five hundred years the library has been at the heart of the University of Aberdeen and its collections have provided a focus for our academic community and for scholars from around the world. As the University has grown, so the exiting library has reached the limit of its resources The University now plans to create a new, integrated library which will spearhead our 10-year development programme to develop our facilities to meet our academic aspirations. To read more on this exciting development visit www.abdn.ac.uk/newlibrary

Museums & Special Collections

We are very proud of our museums and collections, which are open to both students and the public and are well worth a visit. Special Libraries and Archives hold over 200,000 printed volumes and 4,000 archive collections, including a great deal of rare and unusual material. It is complemented by Marischal Museum, which holds collections of international importance, built up over several centuries. Students from many departments visit the museum during their studies, and also just to view the permanent and changing exhibitions and art collections. The University has six other internationally important museums and collections (Anatomy Museum, Geological Collections, Herbarium, Natural Philosophy Collection of Scientific Instruments, Pathology & Forensic Medicine Collections, Zoology Museum), which support taught courses. Together, the University has the 6th most important museum collection in the country.

For more information visit www.abdn.ac.uk/historic/museums/