About the Library

Find your way around the library

Books you have ordered

Loans that you have ordered through Uppsala University Library Catalogue or Catalogue 1962 are put on shelves in the Catalogue room. It usually takes one day to fetch the books. Your loans must be collected within a week.
Interlibrary loans (ILL) from libraries outside Uppsala can be picked up from the enquiry desk in the Catalogue room as soon as you are informed that your loan has arrived.
Old (i.e. pre-1851), valuable and fragile items are held in the Special Reading Room.

Book repository for in-house loans

There is a book repository in the Bibliography hall where you can leave your books that are not available for home-loan.

Computers

Library computers are available in the Bibliography hall and in the Catalogue room. There are however no word processing programmes on these computers.
Logging in: you must log into these computers (with your student account user name and password). Researchers, visitors and others who do not have a student account can request a temporary account at the enquiry desk in the Catalogue room.
Search-only computers, i.e. computers that only allow searches in the Uppsala University Library Catalogue, require no log in. They are available in the Catalogue Room, the Bibliography hall, the Journals Reading Room and in the open stacks.
You may use your own computer in the library. Computer bags however, may not be taken into the library. Leave your bag in the cloakroom in the foyer or put it in one of the lockers outside the café. You can carry your computer in a transparent bag that you can get free of charge from the cloakroom attendant.
A WiFi network is available for students and employees at Uppsala University in the Reading Rooms A, B, C, the Bibliography hall and the Journals Reading Room. For information about connecting up, see The wireless network at Uppsala University

Group study areas

Group study areas are on the 4th floor (Reading Room C) and on the 5th floor (use the lift or walk up one flight of stairs from the entrance level).

Enquiry and service desk

The Enquiry and service desk is in the Catalogue room. The staff are happy to help you to search for information and with your loans. Loans ordered from the closed stacks are collected from the Catalogue room. There are also self-issue machines where you can checkout and return your own loans.

Opening hours: The Catalogue room is open Monday-Friday 9 am to 7 pm, Saturdays 11 am to 2 pm. Other times apply in the summer and at holiday times, see opening hours.

Photocopies

There are several places in the library where you can take copies, for example in the Bibliography hall and outside the Journals Reading Room. It is cheapest if you do your own copying, but you can also order copies from the Section for Photographic Services (one flight of stairs down from Reading Room C or by the lift in Reading Room B).

Course collections

Set books for courses are in the group study area on the 5th floor.
They are for the following subjects:

ALM (Archive, Library and Museum Studies)
Ethnology
Philosophy
Gender Studies
History
History of Science and Ideas
Art History
Literature Studies
Music Studies
Sociology
Languages
Theology

The set books for courses are reference copies, which means that you cannot take them home, but you can read them at the library. You do not need to check them out as loans.

If you want to borrow course books there are some copies at the Karin Boye Library and the loan period is 7 days. It might also be worthwhile to look in Uppsala University Library Catalogue to see if the book you want is available as an ordinary loan.

Study and research places

Tables for students
Students are welcome to use the group study area and the reading rooms
Quiet reading rooms, intended for individual studies are on level 4 - Reading Rooms A and B, and on level 5 - Reading Rooms D and F.
In Reading Room B certain desks are reserved for individuals who have the right of precedence.
Group study areas are on level 4 - Reading Room C and on level 5 - Group Study/Course literature
Quiet conversation is permitted in all other parts of the Carolina Library.
Lockers for students writing student papers
If you are writing a student paper at C, D or Masters level, you can request a locker for a limited period of time. Contact the staff in Reception in the foyer.
Trolleys/lockers for researchers
Researchers may request a trolley or locker. Please contact the staff in Reception.

Microfilm room

The microfilms are on the 5th floor (lift). The majority of the microfilms are Swedish daily newspapers. There are also some foreign daily newspapers on microfilm and some older Swedish magazines (e.g. Allers, Se, Tidevarvet).

The microfilm room is equipped with reader/printers.

Read more about Newspapers on microfilm.

New books on display

Certain new books are displayed on a shelf for new acquisitions in the Bibliography hall. These are books on philosophy and theology, general books in other subjects and reference works. The books are changed every Tuesday. Other new books in the Humanities and Sociology are displayed and shelved in the Karin Boye Library.

New Uppsala theses are displayed on a separate shelf in the Bibliography hall. These are taken to the Journal reading room as soon as the thesis has been publicly defended.

Printers

You can take printouts from the library's computers. They are printed on the common printing machines in the Bibliography hall and in the Catalogue room. The same card is used for both photocopies and printouts.

Special Reading Room

All books printed before 1851 as well as valuable and fragile items are made available in the Special reading room. You reach this room through Reading Room A.

Journals Reading Room

The Journals reading room is on the 6th floor. Items here are for in-house use only. There is a Photocopier near the lift.

In the Journals Reading Room you can find:

foreign and Swedish journals - a selection. In most cases it is only the most recent year's run that you can find on the shelves here. Older journals are held in the closed stacks and can be ordered through Uppsala University Library Catalogue.
foreign newspapers - are kept for 1-2 months (for more information, see Newspapers and journals)
DN, SvD and UNT - are kept for 1 week
theses that have been publicly defended at Uppsala University during the current year.

Are you unable to find a newspaper or journal in the Journals reading room?

- search in Uppsala University Library Catalogue or Catalogue 1962 - many journals are in the closed stacks
- search in Journals A-Z - many journals are available electronically
- search in Daily newspapers - many daily newspapers are available electronically
- search for Articles - many journal and newspaper articles are in databases
- see Newspapers on microfilm - Swedish daily newspapers that have been microfilmed

Read more about Newspapers and journals

Returning loans

There is a self-return machine just outside the Catalogue room that can provide you with a receipt. Loans returned in this way are de-registered immediately. If the machine should be out of order, you can leave your returned items in the box next to the machine. There is also a book-drop i the foyer near the cloakroom.

Open stacks

Most of the Carolina Library books are held in closed stacks. These have to be ordered through Uppsala University Library Catalogue and fetched later from the Catalogue Room.

However you can fetch some books yourself from the shelves. These are the books that you find in the catalogue with the location Carolina Öppen samling. The "Öppen samling" (Open stacks) are on the 9th floor (press 9 ÖS in the lift). The books are shelved according to subject and then the call numbers. You have to find the book's shelf-mark in Uppsala University Library Catalogue before you can find the book itself in the open stacks. There is a computer for catalogue searches and a self-issue machine in the open stacks near the lift.