Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
April 10, 2026
Get Connected with University of Edinburgh Information Services
Get Connected drop in sessions for Freshers Week are running in the Main Library on 12th-14th September between 10am-4pm. No appointments necessary, just turn up.
Take the opportunity to connect up your own personal devices e.g. laptops, phones and tablets/pads to the University network. Staff will be on hand to help and guide you.
Sessions will take place on the Mezzanine area of the first floor of the Main Library, George Square (above the entrance gates).
There is a quick reply mailbox at get.connected@ed.ac.uk to support this event. Send a blank email to this address and you’ll get an automatic reply which contains details of the event and links to our help pages on these topics.
You can also find out more at : www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-students
Welcome to New College Library
A big welcome to all students starting and returning to the University of Edinburgh today, at the beginning of Freshers week 2012. We’re looking forward to meeting you. To help you get started at University, check out this guide for new students to Library & IT services.
If you want to get ahead with using New College Library, you could start with the Virtual Tour.
There will be a programme of tours for students at New College Library – students please watch your email for details. There will also be events happening all over the University Library to help you get connected with your IT and Library services.
Scotlands oldest documents online
Looks like a very interesting project …
New books at New College Library – September
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. We also acquire some titles as e-book versions when these are available.
New book of the month for September is the Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence (Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, c2011)
This book has been purchased as an e-book and is available via the Edinburgh University Library Catalogue. Access is restricted to University of Edinburgh users. It was purchased to support the course Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding, a Year 2 undergraduate course at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.
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. Please ask at the New College Library Helpdesk if there’s a book that you are interested in and can’t find.
Once in a blue moon? Surprises in the New College Library stacks …
The Romance of Modern Astronomy by Hector MacPherson. New College Library Stack II C4/a2
The 31st of August is scheduled for a ‘blue moon’ over Scotland. A blue moon traditionally occurs whenever two full moons happen in a single month – an unusual occurence, hence the saying ‘Once in a blue moon’.
Dedicated users of New College Library may have made their way down to the depths of Stack II at basement level, and discovered the sequence of older monographs known as the ‘unclassified sequence’. These books date from the pre-1930 existence of New College Library, and the variety of the content covers a much wider scope than the theological curriculum of the time. I was surprised to find this one : The Romance of Modern Astronomy (1911), by Hector MacPherson.
This collection is currently part of an online cataloguing project funded by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
Here comes the rain again …
Prayers written at Vailima, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1910. New College Library Z.2233.
The rain is pouring down this afternoon in thundery showers.
Here’s a rainy day item from New College Library’s collections. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this prayer in time of rain as part of a collection of prayers written in Vailima, Samoa where he made his home in the 1890s. It was later published in this 1910 illuminated edition, designed by Alberto Sangorski.
This item is held in New College Library’s Special Collections, in the ‘Z’ Collection.
Planned changes to New College Library photocopying services
The University is introducing a new system of copying and printing over the summer of 2012.
New Xerox multi-function devices (MFDs) are due to be installed for the beginning of semester in September. University users will continue to be able to charge their University smartcards with credit for photocopying. However, for external users, the old prepaid copy cards will cease to function. Instead, the New College Library helpdesk will be able to charge visitors cards with credit to enable external users to copy. After the new machines have been installed, New College Library will no longer be selling the prepaid copy cards.
We are still selling the prepaid copy cards but advising users to only buy for what they need right now. If you have a copy card, please try to use up any prepaid copy card balance now while you can. If you do have a balance on your prepaid copy card, after you are no longer able to use it in the Library, you will be able to have this balance checked at the Main Library Helpdesk, and receive a refund on the balance, until 31 December 2012.
Full article on the University website :
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/about/news/copy-cards-cease
New JSTOR collections benefit e-journals for Divinity
Are you a fan of JSTOR electronic journals ? In 2012 the University of Edinburgh purchased the JSTOR Collections V & VIII. This has increased the coverage of backruns of a number of titles relevant to Divinity, such as:
- Canadian Journal of Philosophy 1971-2006
- Contemporary Religions in Japan 1960-1970
- The Catholic Historical Review 1915-2006
- International Journal of the Classical Tradition 1994-2007
- International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1970-2007
- International Journal of Hindu Studies 1997-2007
- Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1974-2011
- Jewish History 1986-2007
- The Journal of Ethics 1997-2007
- Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 1985-2011
- Journal of Religion and Health 1961-2007
- The Journal of Religious Ethics 1973-2005
- The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1835-2006
- Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 1997-2011
- Prooftexts 1981-2010
- Religion & Literature 1965-2008
- Religious Studies 1965-2011
- Scottish Historical Review 1903-
New College Library Archives
An image from the New College Archive of New College Library as it appeared in 1946
Did you know that New College Library holds significant collections of archives and manuscripts?
These collections include the papers of Thomas Chalmers, J.H. Oldham, James S. Stewart and Norman W. Porteous. Hidden among the older archives are gems such as the last speech and testimony of the covenanter James Renwick (1662-1688). The Archives also include a New College Archive which includes group photographs of students and staff, and of the New College buildings.
Recently added to our collections are the papers of Rev Tom Allan (1916-1965), Rev. Professor Alec Campbell Cheyne (1924-2006), Rev. Professor John McIntyre (1916-2005), and the Very Rev Professor James Whyte (1920-2005). The listing of these papers was funded by a generous bequest from the estate of Rev. Professor Alec Campbell Cheyne .
See the New College Archives web page to find out more.
New books at New College Library – August
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 Why there almost certainly is a God : doubting Dawkins, by Keith Ward. This book was purchased to support the Atheism in Debate course at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.
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 or in the display just yet.
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
My name is Phoebe Kirkland, I am an MSc East Asian Studies student, and for...
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
Presentation My name is Lishan Zou, I am a fourth year History and Politics student....