The Asian special collections comprise tens of thousands of rare books, thousands of manuscripts, maps, prints, drawings and photographs, and hundreds of archives.

The Dutch Revolt or Eighty Years’ War and the Dutch Golden Age have traditionally been described in the national historiography as glorious periods; with the Dutch Revolt being depicted as a heroic battle for independence and the Dutch Golden Age as an unparalleled political, economic and cultural success…

Overview of reference works, journals and website for research in Politics and International Relations of Japan

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in African Studies

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in French language and culture.

With its more than 1400 bindings and over a thousand fragments Leiden’s collection of medieval manuscripts (up to ca. 1550) is the largest in the Netherlands.

The special collections of Leiden University Libraries offer access to worldwide known valuable, rare, and unique materials. The collections are actively complemented and made accessible for research and education.

The collection of maps and atlases consists of approximately 100,000 map sheets (including c. 3,000 manuscript maps), 3,500 atlases and 25,000 topographical prints and drawings.

The Southeast Asian Special Collections contain text and audiovisual materials pertaining to the languages, histories, philosophies, religions, literatures, and (material) art of the region. The focus lies on the Malay world, in particular on the Nederlands-Indies/Indonesia. Apart from books and periodicals…

Beatrice Gründler, professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, will receive an honorary doctorate in Oriental Manuscript Studies from Leiden University.

In collaboration with the The Hague Historical Museum and photographer Dagmar van Weeghel, Leiden University Libraries (UBL) is the first to present a retrospective exhibition of the photographic oeuvre of Alexine Tinne (1835 – 1869). New research into her life and work is the reason for a reappraisal…

Overview of the Scaliger, Brill, Elsevier, Van de Sande, Juynboll, Drewes, Isaac Alfred Ailion, Arminius and Lingling Wiyadharma Fellows who have conducted research in the Special Collections of the University Library.

A guide for finding Korean newspapers, magazines, live TV broadcasts and audiovisual materials.

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah. The Swedish Academy praises Gurnah's "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". The works in the reading…

All Leiden University Libraries' locations are accessible to people with disabilities or health impairments. Our staff will be happy to assist all visitors requiring specific assistance navigating the library buildings or services.

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

Facility, Library

Overview of databases, reference works and websites in western languages for research in Comparative Philosophy

Starting in September, 55,000 books from the Leiden University Libraries will be digitized. This marks Leiden University’s contribution to the successful partnership between the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and Google.

The people behind the Leiden University Libraries aim to maintain the level of their services to clients as much as possible. They are making thankful use of internet, but not everything can be put online.

Would you like to have your monograph published Open Access? This is becoming ever so attractive. Authors and publishers are increasingly discovering that online publication stimulates higher sales numbers of paper books.

Library exhibitions, both online and physical, give an idea of the breadth of our collections.

While the United States continues to carry out drone strikes, and China conducts large-scale cyber and information operations, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers live in trenches, and NATO sends tanks to the Donbas front to force a breakthrough. Has war changed dramatically in recent decades as a result…

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for Research in Russian and Eurasian Studies

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in Art & Art History

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in religious studies.

The UBL develop collections which support the needs of faculty and students of the University.

From research on stellar winds to sign language: an impressive seven researchers from Leiden University will receive a prestigious Vici grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

In March 2018 with the support of the Van de Sande Foundation Dr. Abdolbaset Ghorbani Dahaneh (Uppsala University) will research the sixteenth-century Rauwolff Herbarium and its botanical sources in Leiden University Libraries. On Wednesday, March 14, during the Clusius Symposium Ghorbani will give…

Een uitbreiding van de NIMAR collectie van de Universitaire bibliotheken Leiden.

Quietly read a book in our new reading nook, listen to interesting and bizarre stories set in early twentieth-century Leiden, walk past literary locations in Leiden and watch the best film adapted from a Leiden novel as decided on by you. April is Literary Leiden month! A month in which we pay special…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL), the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) and the Nederlands Fotogenootschap would like to invite you for the symposium ‘Holy Land’ and Modernity: the Frank Scholten Collection in Context’ and hands-on viewing of Frank Scholten photographs and albums on Monday…

With support of several companies, including Brill Publishers and private foundations, Leiden University Libraries and the Scaliger Institute welcome around 15 to 20 Fellows and guest per year to consult and examine material in the Special Collections. The Scaliger Institute received a large number…

The photo collection of South and Southeast Asia contains material collected by the Kern Institute and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). In addition to photo prints in various techniques, the collection also includes (lantern) slides, picture postcards…

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 special collections from Japan and Korea are located at the central library building at Witte Singel, where it forms a part of the Asian Library.

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in German language and culture.