Besides a large and growing online collection, we also have a large physical collection, of which 90 percent is in our Book Depot (IWO) and 10 percent in open storage at our library locations. The entire modern collection can be consulted through our catalogue, called CataloguePlus.

Our heritage collections are managed by the Allard Pierson. These collections include books from before 1901, manuscripts, old maps, archives and collections, rare and precious works and museum objects. Part of the heritage materials can be found in CataloguePlus. For the other part, Allard Pierson uses other search and archive systems. For an overview of all heritage collections and how to consult them, see the Allard Pierson website.

Online collection

Through CataloguePlus we offer our users an extensive digital collection consisting of e-books, e-journals and specialised databases, such as Scopus and Psychinfo. For this we have licences with publishers. Besides materials under licence, you will also find freely accessible digital scientific publications in CataloguePlus relevant to education and research, including so-called open access publications. Digital theses of UvA students can be found in a separate thesis database.

Our heritage collections are also increasingly available digitally, via image databases and specific databases. More information can be found on the Allard Pierson website.

Physical Collection

Open stacks

Besides a growing digital collection, the Library has an extensive paper collection. Some of it can be found at various library locations in our open collections. These may be books and journals, but also other materials. There you will find the most important and up-to-date titles for education and research at the UvA. You can pull the material off the shelf yourself to either borrow it or to view it on the spot.

Open collections include among others:

• UB Singel: Humanities Collection: Archaeology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, History (before 500), Classical Languages, Art History, Media Studies, Musicology, Religion and Theatre Studies
• P.C. Hoofthuis Library: Humanities Collection: Arabic, German, English, European studies, French, History (after 500), Hebrew, Italian, Literary studies, Dutch, New Greek, Scandinavian, Slavonic, Spanish and Linguistics
• Library Learning Centre RoeterseilandCampus (REC H): Anthropology, Communication Science, Economics and Business Administration, Geography, Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Planning, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology
• Law Library (REC A): Law
• Science Park Library: Earth Sciences, Biology, Information Science, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and Mathematics

Book Depot (IWO)

The majority of our paper collection is located in the Book Depot (IWO). The Book Depot is a closed warehouse. This means that it is not possible to walk around the bookcases and borrow materials yourself.

Publications in the Book Depot can be requested via CataloguePlus and collected at a library location of your choice. Some materials can only be viewed on location due to their size or fragility.