Leiden’s University Library provides access to a large collection of digital (contemporary) and digitized (historical) newspapers. These newspapers can be found through the library’s catalogue and through the library’s databases. Furthermore, the Dutch National Library offers access to several international…

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 Film and Literary Studies

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

The research suggestions below may be suitable for a bachelor's or master's thesis or can be used as additional source material in ongoing research.

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 Reading Room houses a collection of 800+ facsimiles of Western manuscripts originating mostly from Medieval Europe. They enable students to consult a 3D version very close to the original manuscripts kept worldwide, especially those with contents or from cultural traditions that…

The UBL holds seven collections recognised by UNESCO as documents of universal value and exceptional significance to the world. Six are included in UNESCO's International World Heritage list of documents or Memory of the World Register, one in the Dutch UNESCO register.

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

This Subject Guide will provide you with an overview of useful databases and online resources available within and outside the University Library. This subject guide is your starting point, aiding you in finding sources for any research field within the field of International Studies and International…

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…

The main focus of the Islamic World Special Collections is on the Middle East and North Africa, with smaller holdings from Indonesia, the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia as far as Xinjiang, China.

In the course of over four centuries the book collections have been greatly enlarged thanks to the bequests and grants or the purchases from the propriety of scholars or private collectors. Sometimes it concerned collections with thousands of early printed books, such as the purchase of the library…

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.

If an item is not available at Leiden University Libraries (UBL), you can try and obtain it directly from another library, request it using ILL services, or suggest items for purchase.

The G.W.J. Drewes Fund was invoked to celebrate the transfer of the scholarly legacy of Professor Drewes to the UBL and to mark the opening of the Asia Library in the University Library at the Witte Singel. The fund provides financial support to one or more fellowships at the Scaliger Institute. The…

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

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…

With support of several publishers and private foundations, Leiden University Libraries (UBL) and the Scaliger Institute welcome around 15 to 20 Fellows and guests per year to consult and research materials from our Special Collections. The Scaliger Institute received applications this year from domestic…

Twenty-two of the 150 newly elected members of the Dutch House of Representatives studied at Leiden University or did their PhD research here. But who are they and which degrees are most popular?

The domain of the post-medieval manuscripts and private archives covers the period from about 1550 to the present. A clear distinction with the medieval manuscripts, however, is difficult to make. There are many undated manuscripts and it is often difficult to date them even within a decade or a quarter…

The Chinese Special Collections are part of the Asian Library. Items can be consulted at the Special Collections Reading Room.

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

On January 13, Prof. mr. Rick Lawson, dean of the Faculty of Law, handed over to Prof. mr. Carel Stolker, Rector of Leiden University, a binding with rare law disputations. The book is a present of the Law Faculty to the University on behalf of its 440th anniversary (1575).

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

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…

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

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…

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.

Overview of reference works, journals and website for research in Gender and Women’s studies of Japan

An impressive 22 research projects by Leiden researchers have been awarded Veni funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

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

In September 1321, exactly 700 years ago, one of Italy's most famous writers, Dante Alighieri, died as a Florentine exile in Ravenna. That makes 2021 a Dante year. Already during his lifetime, he was a famous writer. His current fame rests especially on the Divine Comedy, a long narrative poem describing…

A new memorial stone on the facade of a student house in the Hugo de Grootstraat is a reminder of the dozens of Indonesian students who studied in Leiden before and during the Second World War. Some of them were active in the Resistance, which cost a number of them their lives.