- access to over 30,000 journals and 700,000 books
- online resources make a 'virtual' library available anywhere you need it
- world-renowned Special Collections and archives
- 24-hour opening during term times
The Library building stands at the centre of campus and has impressive IT facilities and over 1,000 reader spaces. Around 15,000 new books are added each year and the Library provides access to over 30,000 journals in print or online
The newly refurbished Library offers access to a variety of study facilities including the Sussex Research Hive, a dedicated graduate study area for doctoral students and researchers.
The Library participates in a reciprocal scheme so that if the book or journal you need is not available either in the Library or online, you can visit other university and specialist research libraries to use items and, in some cases, borrow publications from those libraries. An interlibrary request service is also available.
- Electronic Library
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Much of the information you may need is now available online, and the Electronic Library provides an increasingly wide range of online resources accessible to all members of the University, on or off campus.
The journal collections include online access to many quality titles comprising almost all the output from major academic publishers. The Library also provides access to some of the major databases available for academic research, including Web of Science, Scopus and many more.
- Using the Library
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A web-based tutorial, InfoPlus, has been designed to demonstrate the use of Library resources and to help you find and evaluate information online. It also includes advice on referencing systems. A series of online subject guides provide an overview of resources in your research area.
The Library offers bespoke teaching sessions on using its resources effectively, including access to, and evaluation of, online material. For doctoral students, one-to-one support sessions tailored to individual research interests are available.
Teaching sessions on using the Library’s Special Collections are also available.
- Special Collections
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Special Collections are located in The Keep, a new purpose-built home for archives and collections close to the University. The Keep houses not only the University’s Special Collections but also the historical resources of East Sussex Record Office and the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton & Hove, offering a rich, exciting and easily accessible research resource.
The University holds over 80 outstanding manuscript and archival collections, chiefly in the fields of 20th- and 21st-century literary, political and social history, and the history of science. These can be consulted in the Library’s Special Collections.
Notable among the literary archives are manuscripts and correspondence of Virginia Woolf and Rudyard Kipling. Among archives of interest to political and social historians are the papers of the New Statesman, Kingsley Martin, Leonard Woolf and Geoffrey Gorer (anthropologist and colleague of Margaret Mead). Of major relevance to social historians is the Mass Observation Archive, founded in 1937 and still active today in collecting autobiographical material about everyday life in Britain.
As well as manuscript archives, the Library owns unique collections of printed material, ranging from rare early books in the Travers and Baker Books Collections to an unsurpassed collection of books, contemporary pamphlets and posters relating to the Paris Commune of 1871.
- Specialist libraries on campus
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The Keith Pavitt Library
SPRU – Science and Technology Policy Research holds a number of specialist resources for policy research in science, technology and innovation. The collection includes material on the economics of technological change, technology and innovation management, science and technology policies, research evaluation, policies for growth, employment and technology, chemical, biological and nuclear arms control, and energy and environment issues.
Access to the Keith Pavitt Library is available on request to postgraduate students in the School of Business, Management and Economics. Access may be extended, again on request, to other users at the University.
IDS library and information services
Through its library (BLDS – British Library for Development Studies) and other online information services, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is one of the world’s leading sources of specialist information on the subject of development. BLDS hosts Europe’s largest research collection on all aspects of economic and social change in developing countries, providing access to print materials from a huge variety of sources, as well as a range of electronic resources. Specialist staff can help with enquiries about finding development information, and BLDS also offers a number of online services, including BLDS updates. Membership is freely available to Sussex postgraduate students.
IDS Knowledge Services aim to ensure that research knowledge makes a greater contribution to poverty reduction in the Global South through the delivery and development of knowledge-sharing products, services, networks and organisations. We provide free online access to research, policy and practice publications on development, with specialist services focusing on climate change, gender, governance, health and education, security and conflict.
Image gallery: Library services
