Edinburgh University Library

Title: Edinburgh University Library

Description: Edinburgh University Library serves the research and teaching of the University of Edinburgh (founded 1583). Its holdings are of research and teaching collections in the fields of its nine Faculties: Arts, Divinity, Education, Medicine, Music, Science and Engineering, Social Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine. When they merged with the University, several of these Faculties were already long-established colleges, with historic and significant research collections of rare books and manuscripts of their own. They include the Royal School of Veterinary Medicine Library (founded 1825), New College Library (founded 1846) and the Reid Music Library (founded ca 1860) and, most recently, Moray House Institute of Education Library (founded 1835). The Library consists of over 3 million printed items and manuscripts on over twenty separate sites across the City of Edinburgh.
The Library is also developing new services and facilities based on the latest information technology. These are offered collaboratively with the University’s Computing, Media and Learning Technology services.
The Library’s general collections are, by and large, its post-1920 collections of printed books and pamphlets, periodicals, audio-visual and electronic materials, which are housed in the Main and Faculty Libraries on 23 separate sites. Special collections are made up of the Library’s historic (pre-1920) general collections and named specialist collections of manuscripts, printed books and maps, University of Edinburgh theses, the University of Edinburgh Archives, and the Lothian Health Services Archives. Most of the special collections are housed in the Main Library, with some specialist collections held in New College (Divinity) Library and the Reid Music Library.
Materials on the Caribbean and on Black and Asian communities are to be found throughout the Library’s collections. These subject areas are, or have been until recently, researched and taught in wider contexts, such as Commonwealth and American History, Social and Political Studies, Ecology and Resource Management, and Tropical Veterinary Medicine.

Strengths: With regard to Caribbean studies the main subjects covered include: Economic history; Environmental sciences; Geography; History; Literature; Music; Sociology. Resources covering the history of Black and Asian peoples in Britain are distributed throught the library's collections, particularly in subject areas such as economic and social history, law, politics, religious studies and sociology.

Size:

Catalogue: Voyager

Catalogue URL: http://catalogue.lib.ed.ac.uk/

Main URL: http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/

Access: Members of the public can apply for an external user's Library card to gain access to the collections. For further information, please contact the section of the Library which you are most likely to wish to use, or write to the Reader Services Librarian, Edinburgh University Library, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LJ. Please also visit the Library web page http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/lib/services/ for further details.

Acquisition dates: 1580 - to date with c.70% of the stock acquired since 1960.

Note: Some of the Library’s major catalogues are still accessible only in manual formats, and many of the historical collections are shelved in non-classified sequences with no subject guides to assist geographic or topical searches.

Interest: Asian, Black, Caribbean

Complete: Complete

Subjects

Sociology

Music

Literature

History

Geography

Economic history

Personal/Corporate names

Places