As a Friend, you contribute to the acquisition, digitisation and restoration of important objects.

Museums, libraries and similar institutions can request materials for exhibitions from the Special Collections.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) owns over 5 million paper materials. Loanable items can be picked up and returned at the UBL library location of your choice.

The core business of the UBL is providing information to staff and students of Leiden University and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) for their educational and research tasks. Though staff and students of Leiden University and LUMC are the primary focus of the services of the UBL, others…

Visiting address Postal address Kamerlingh Onnes Building (KOG) Steenschuur 25 2311 ES Leiden Tel: +31 71 527 7515 Law Library Postbus 9520 2300 RA Leiden

Visiting address Van Steenis Building Einsteinweg 2 2333 CC Leiden For any book locker issues, please call the University Library (UB): 071-5272813 (+31-71-5272813)

Overview of databases and reference works for research in Archaeology.

Visiting address Postal address Turfmarkt 99 2511 DP Den Haag +31 70 8009305 +31 71 5278705 Wijnhaven Library Postbus 13228 2501 EE Den Haag

Visiting address Postal address Gorlaeus Building Einsteinweg 55 2333 CC Leiden +31 71 527 43 66 / 43 67 Science Library P.O. Box 9502 2300 RA Leiden

Visiting address Postal address Pieter de la Court Building Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden Tel: +31 71 527 39 75 Social and Behavioural Sciences Library P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden

Leiden University students, staff and (dual) PhDs can use the libraries' databases, e-books and e-journals both on-campus and off-campus.

Scanners, copiers and printers are available at all of our library locations.

Visiting address Postal address Witte Singel 27 2311 BG Leiden 071 - 527 2814 (General) 071 - 527 2800 (Reception desk) 071 - 527 2857 (Special Collections) Postbus 9501 2300 RA Leiden Courier services Witte Singel 27 2311 BG Leiden Goods deliveries Maliebaan 30 2311 CC Leiden

Study support

Knowing where scientific information can be found and how to use it is of great importance for getting through university. In collaboration with teachers, UBL guides students in information literacy skills: from assessing information to searching in the Special Collections and citation management.

Leiden University alumni and PhD graduates can continue to use library facilities free of charge.

The universities in the Netherlands and Cambridge University Press (CUP) have recently concluded a three-year agreement guaranteeing 100% open access to academic journals. As of June 1, researchers at Dutch universities will be able to publish articles in CUP’s full open access journals via the so-called…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has received a donation from Dr. Freerk Heule to digitise and publish an internationally unique collection of unofficial (minjian) poetry journals from China. These poetry journals are produced outside the official infrastructure for literature in China for literature…

The latest scientific articles by the Rectores Magnifici of Dutch universities will soon be freely available online. They aim to set a good example to researchers in the Netherlands. Carel Stolker from Leiden University is one such Rector.

If an item is not available at Leiden University Libraries (UBL), you can borrow materials directly from another library, request a book loan or article delivery through interlibrary loan, or suggest items for purchase.

The Asian Library holds the largest collection on Indonesia worldwide, and some of the foremost collections on South and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea.

The library provides access to a large collection of e-books. Below you can find answers to the most relevant questions on how to find and successfully access these e-books.

Practical information on submitting your dissertation

The Centre for Digital Scholarship offers several opportunities for training on data management. Topics included are policies and requirements, sensitive data and GDPR, data sharing and consent, publishing and archiving data, Data Management Plans, FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and…

We are very pleased to announce the agreement between the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and John Wiley and Sons, Inc. on unlimited open access publication of Dutch academic articles combined with expanded subscription access to high-quality research.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Thousands of students and researchers from eight partner universities in the Netherlands and Flanders have been able to gain valuable experience in Egypt through the institute. Good reason for a celebrat…

How do you move 3,000 fragile clay tablets that date back thousands of years? This was the challenge faced by staff from the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO). After years of preparation, the Liagre Böhl collection has been moved on trolleys to its new home.

Software development is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a sociologist. Three years ago, John Boy began developing his software package Textnets. Because of Corona, he was less able to concentrate on writing scientific research and also setting up the online courses…

Presentations, city tours, themed cafés and information fairs − there was plenty to discover on the Bachelor’s Open Day last Saturday. Around 6,000 prospective students and 4,000 parents visited faculties in Leiden and The Hague to soak up the atmosphere and imagine how it would be to study at Leiden…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has been able to acquire an extraordinary Chinese manuscript at auction in Hong Kong. It concerns an Imperial Edict (dated 1582) from the Ming dynasty period, at one time part of the former collection of well-known sinologist and author of detective-novels Robert van…

The Leiden University Visual Ethnography collection has been added to Alexander Street Press, an educational streaming video service. The master’s specialization Visual Ethnography has supported many talented individuals to produce inspiring films. About 70 master’s thesis films of the past 8 years…

Library

A national walkout will be staged on Monday 13 May. Leiden Scholars for Palestine has called on students and staff from Leiden University to meet at 11.00 at the Lipsius building in Leiden and the Wijnhaven building in The Hague.

Last month, the UBL announced that it will deselect an extensive collection of foreign dissertations. We are happy to report now that The Internet Archive will be taking over this collection.

A (digital) course reserve shelf offers the possibility to set library materials for a designated period aside.

Read all about the most important functionalities of Zotero.

Read all about the most important functionalities of EndNote.

Every year on 26 November Leiden University commemorates the protest speech given by Professor Cleveringa against the Nazis. At least 663 students, staff and alumni of the University lost their lives during the Second World War, yet little was known about these victims. PhD candidate Adriënne Baars…

Jurist Gineke Wiggers wants to predict the expected impact of legal articles. Carel Stolker, Rector of the University and, like Wiggers, a legal specialist, is enthusiastic about the research. ‘A big data project like this will help us establish the effect of our work on society.’

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has been able to acquire four remarkable medical manuscripts partly thanks to support from the Friends of Leiden University Libraries, the Pieter van Foreest Stichting and the Van de Sande Fonds. All four are largely written in Dutch and can be dated between 1595 and…

What do you think about our libraries, the (digital) collections, services and the library staff? The Leiden University Libraries (UBL) would like to know!

Library, Social

Thanks to the financial support of our friends foundation (Stichting Vrienden van de Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden) Leiden University Libraries was able to purchase a very early topographic map of southeast Sumatra.

Last February, Leiden University Libraries (UBL) acquired a rare Chinese manuscript dating back to the Ming Dynasty. Three Chinese Studies students got the opportunity to decipher the edict (dated 1582) during their internships. In this UBLpodcast they share their findings.

Leiden University’s President of the Executive Board, Professor Annetje Ottow, has been reappointed for a second term by the Board of Governors.

Spatial technology such as virtual reality can help patients who have difficulty with spatial cognition, for instance if they keep on losing their way. In her inaugural lecture, neuropsychologist Ineke van der Ham will talk about the importance of avatars, the patient experience and room for innovat…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has digitized more than a thousand individual manuscripts and several complete archives from the post-medieval western manuscript and archives collection and made them available online through Digital Collections. With this, some of the most important archives and masterpieces…

3 October University has become something of a tradition: a bit of science among the Leidens Ontzet celebrations. During the new and improved edition, the WetenschapsWarenMarkt (Science Market), visitors spoke to researchers about the nitrogen problem, making organs and the city’s connections with A…

From Persia and Arabia to North Africa: as early as the nineteenth century, there were Dutch people who used the camera themselves in various regions of the Middle East.