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.

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

A new government, conflicts around the world and obviously a lot of science: these are the five stories about Leiden University that you enjoyed reading in 2024.

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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.

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

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in Ancient Near East Studies. Last update: October 2020

The Centre for Digital Scholarship offers training, events and presentations aimed at researchers and research support staff affiliated with Leiden University on the many different aspects of digital scholarship.

The libraries offer over 2300 study places. Some are freely available, some are available to Leiden University students only.

Practical information on submitting your dissertation

The archives created by Leiden University and the private archives of Leiden professors are an invaluable source for the history of the university and its functioning. The main sources have been edited (nearly always in Dutch). In addition, several studies have been published, describing the development…

In 2022, Leiden was European City of Science. During this year, Leiden presented a public programme brimming with science, knowledge, arts, and skills for anyone with a curious mind. Leiden University Libraries (UBL) organised an extensive programme of activities on the theme of Leiden European City…

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

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.

Leiden University Libraries' favourite tools to facilitate your online work and research.

A lot has happened at Cluster Zuid since the highest point of the building was reached in December. See the photo report below.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made more than five hundred medieval handwritten text sources available online via Digital Collections. This makes a third of her collection of Western medieval manuscripts – one of the largest and the most important in the Netherlands – available in high resolution…

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…

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

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) recently digitized circa 150 Yemeni manuscripts and has made them freely available for research and education. The manuscripts, dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, were digitized as part of the Zaydi Manuscript Tradition project. Yemen has been marked…

Welcome to the Sub-guide for North Korea. This Sub-guide is designed for students looking to locate, access and use a wide variety of scholarly and non-scholarly sources which are either (1) published or produced in North Korea or (2) about North Korea. This Sub-guide is a part of the General Subject…

A systematic review answers a central question by summarising (all) relevant studies.

Explanation and background of Dutch copyright

Do you use our Interlibrary Loan Service to obtain books, chapters and/or articles from another library? From 28 January we will be moving on to a new application system.

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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…

This Subject Guide is designed to support students of Japan studies at Leiden University in their research process. For every step of the research process, this guide introduces a number of tips and recommended resources. You can find several sub-guides and contacts in the 'quick links' in the tab on…

This Subject Guide is designed to support students of Korean studies at Leiden University in their research process. For every step of the research process, this guide introduces a number of tips and recommended resources. You can find several sub-guides and contacts in the 'quick links' in the tab…

Part of the Leiden University Libraries’ (UBL) collections on Southeast Asia is now available in digital form for research, educational purposes and the general public. The collections consist of manuscripts, old prints, photos and maps of Southeast Asia, which have been made available via Digital Collections.…

The Dutch universities will give Open Access an extra boost from 2019 by starting a pilot titled ‘You share, we take care’ to make publications available after six months in collaboration with researchers.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has acquired a rare manuscript map of Suriname. The map from 1830 is almost 2.5 meters long and is highly detailed. It was hand-drawn by Helmuth Hendrik Hiemcke (1808-1858), one of the official surveyors employed by the colonial administration, and shows Suriname in…

Researchers of Leiden University (excl. LUMC) are collectively using the Leiden Repository to make their publications Open Access available. They have, thereby, shown 75% Open Access publication of peer-reviewed articles to be an attainable goal for the 2017 and 2018 years. This has greatly increased…

Water damage, old restorations and copper corrosion in some illustrations. De Materia Medica has been through a lot over the centuries. The manuscript dates from 1083 AD and is one of the oldest illustrated Arabic manuscripts in the world. Due to intensive use, De Materia Medica was no longer in good…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has received considerable funding from the National Library of Israel (NLI) and the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society (FJMS) for the digitisation of a collection of 166 Hebrew manuscripts. The digitised manuscripts will be made available to the public in the course…

The Dutch universities are pleased with the announcement by the international group of research funding bodies (Science Europe) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) that, from 2020, all publications resulting from projects funded by the affiliated bodies will be published exclusively…

Recently, the oldest parts of the Leiden University Archives have been preserved and digitised thanks to a grant from Metamorfoze. This makes an important source on the history of Leiden University – and academic life in the Northern Netherlands in a broader sense – widely available.

The Leiden University Libraries (UBL) catalogue contains millions of (e-)books, (e-)journals, manuscripts, letters, and other materials available at the UBL.

The Special Collections of Leiden University Libraries contain a world-renowned and vast collection of old prints, manuscripts, archives, prints, drawings and photography. Our collections are accessible to Leiden researchers and students, as well as external researchers and other interested parties.

A personal library account and LU-Card is needed to enter the libraries and use on-site facilities.

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.

Elsevier has extended its co-operation with Leiden University Libraries’ Centre for Digital scholarship and the Scaliger Institute for two more years on a fellowship programme to support the study of digital collections.

Library, Research

Library, Research

Library, Research

Amid rising polarisation and discrimination, lawyer and human rights activist Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You wants to show in her Cleveringa Lecture on 26 November how dangerous exclusion is.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has been able to acquire an exceptional two-volume Miao album. The acquisition was made possible by the Rombouts Fund for Chinese collections. The extraordinarily well-preserved work contains 70 full-page paintings on silk, depicting non-Chinese peoples in the area…