Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
April 10, 2026
Library of Latin Texts on trial now
Library of Latin Texts (LLT) is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 15 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
LLT contains texts from the beginning of Latin literature (Livius Andronicus, 240 BC) through to the texts of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).The complete works of writers such as Augustine, Jerome, Gregory the Great, Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Kempis can be consulted. The texts have been taken from the Corpus Christianorum series and from other leading editions.
Religion Past and Present on trial now
Religion Past and Present is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 14 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG) which aims to be the definitive encyclopedia of subjects connected with religion.
World Religion Database on trial now
World Religion Database is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 14 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
The World Religion Database (WRD) contains detailed statistics on religious affiliation for every country of the world. It provides source material, including censuses and surveys, as well as best estimates for every religion to offer a definitive picture of international religious demography. It offers best estimates at multiple dates for each of the world’s religions for the period 1900 to 2050.
World Christian Database on trial now
World Christian Database is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 14 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
The World Christian Database provides comprehensive statistical information on world religions, Christian denominations, and people groups. Extensive data are available on 9,000 Christian denominations, 13,000 ethnolinguistic peoples, as well as data on 5,000 cities, 3,000 provinces and 239 countries.
Oxford Handbooks Online on trial now
Oxford Handbooks Online is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 14 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
Oxford Handbooks Online aims to provide scholarly research reviews from the world’s most trusted scholars. The ‘Religion’ category contains 978 entries and the ‘Philosophy’ category 1,181, and articles can be downloaded as pdf files.
The Hammond Organ in history
Today, 11 January, is the anniversary of the birth of Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ. New College Library holds this pamphlet, The Hammond Organ, published in the 1930s, in the Hymnology collections.
Patented eighty years ago in 1933-4, the Hammond Organ was aimed at church and domestic use, and it offered a new and cheaper alternative to the traditional pipe organ for church music. Later, it became popular for jazz, blues and rock music, as well as for church and gospel music.
Laurens Hammond was awarded the Franklin Institute’s John Price Wetherill Medal in 1940 for the invention of the Hammond electric organ.
This item was recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library.
Works of King James I & VI now on display at New College Library
Serenissimi et potentissimi Principis Iacobi, Dei gratia, Magnae Britanniae, Franciae, et Hiberniae Regis, fidei defensoris, opera …
New College Library DPL.25
New on display in the entrance to New College Library is the Works of King James I of England and VI of Scotland edited by James Montagu, Bishop of Winchester, and Dean of the Royal Chapel.
With an engraved portrait of Prince Charles (later King Charles I), and later the Royal Coat of Arms this contains James’ paraphrase of the apocalyptic books of the Bible, as well as works on royalty and church and state.
The volume has a vellum binding covered in a stamped gilded decoration of scattered flowers around a central image of a wild boar.
Part of the Dumfries Presbytery Library, the volume is inscribed Ex Libris Johannes Hutton. Dr John Hutton, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, became the first Treasurer of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1681–82), and Court Physician to King William III and Queen Mary (1688–1702).
Later he was also MP for Dumfries Burghs (1710–12) and when he died in London, in November 1712, he gave as a bequest his library of 1,500 volumes to the Presbytery of Dumfries. Much of this is preserved as the Dumfries Presbytery Library, now kept in New College Library.
This item was recently catalogued online as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects.
New books at New College Library – January
New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks.
Currently in the display is Disability studies and biblical literature edited by Candida R. Moss and Jeremy Schipper. This was a recommendation from Biblical Studies at the School of Divinity, Edinburgh University.
Also new is Celluloid sermons : the emergence of the Christian film industry, 1930-1986 by Terry Lindvall, purchased to support courses in film, religion and ethics.
You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet.
Winter vacation is coming at New College Library
New College Library Christmas tree in Funk Reading Room
New College Library will close on Friday 21 December and reopen again on Thursday 3 January. More details on opening hours for all University of Edinburgh Library sites over the holidays are available at : http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/library-opening
Reserve books can be borrowed from 11am 21st December, to be returned by 10.30 on Monday 14th January.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The wood-walls of Scotland : a Christmas Carol
The wood-walls of Scotland : a Christmas carol, from the Fife Sentinel, with additions. Edinburgh : W. P. Kennedy … etc., 1844. New College Library F.a.12/13
New College Christmas Carol Service is taking place today at 5pm in the Martin Hall, led by members of the New College community and with singing from the New College Choir. Here’s a Christmas carol from New College Library’s collections.
This pamphlet, The wood-walls of Scotland, was originally published in the newspaper the Fife Sentinel. It contains a carol that would have been sung to a popular hymn tune, inspired by the verse from Psalm 132 “Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.” Published after the Disruption of 1843, the carol is celebrating the outdoor services held to accommodate congregations who had separated to form the new Free Church of Scotland.
“On hill-side and green valley
Our wooden temples placed
The faithful, round they rally
The Gospel-standard rais’d”
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