The Central Library serves the Kelburn Campus and is the home of most of the Library's collection. It occupies the whole of the Rankine Brown building, located on the harbour side of the campus. Today's hours are available on the library home page or you can see the full hours for the month.
See what the Kelburn Library has to offer with our library tour:
Library redevelopment during Campus Hub Project
Library access during Campus Hub Project
Finding where items are shelved
Library users may bring cold food and covered drinks into the Central Library. The decision of Library staff is final on the appropriateness of particular items of food; if you are asked to eat it outside, you must do so.
The Kelburn campus library is being redeveloped as a welcoming space with contemporary facilities and intuitive access to resources and services.
For information about what's happening this week, look out for the noticeboard at the library entrance and whiteboards on affected levels of the library.
The Quad is now closed as part of the Campus Hub project construction works, and as a result, access routes to the Central Library have changed. You can access the library via the Easterfield, Cotton, or Maclaurin buildings; just follow the signs.
The map below shows the new access routes. Pedestrian routes are in grey, and fully accessible routes are marked in yellow.
To accommodate your study needs, the Central Library's study spaces have been divided into two zones. Green Zones are for group work and conversation. Blue Zones are for silent, individual study.
From Monday 7 May the Green Zones are Levels 1, 2 and 3 and the Blue Zones are Levels 0, 4, 5 and 6. Students talking in groups in the Blue Zones will be asked to move to a Green Zone.
Zones are indicated on the floor charts by the lifts, and on signs on each Level. Please respect your fellow library users and adhere to the zone rules.
To help you find your way around the Central Library we offer regularly scheduled library tours. Come along on a 15-minute tour and learn about how the Central Library is organised and the resources we can offer to support your study and research.
The Central Library has the following facilities available for your use:
The following table is a guide to where items are currently shelved in the Central Library, based on their callmark. The location of items will change during the redevelopment project. This table is updated as items are moved. The noticeboard at the library entrance and directories by the lifts also display current information on where items are shelved.
Level 0 is open for public access. All journals are shelved on level 0.
'Big Books' are progrssively being interfiled into the main collection. 'Big Books' have been interfiled on Levels 0 and 3. Items marked as ‘Big Books’ are shelved in a separate range.
| Callmark begins | Subject | Shelved on | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | General works | Level 0 | |
| B | Philosophy, Psychology, Religion | Level 0 | |
| C | History (Classical) | Level 0 | |
| D–F | History (General, Asia, Europe, Africa, Commonwealth, Americas) | Level 3 | |
| G | Geography, Anthropology, Tourism | Level 3 | |
| H–HJ | Economics, Finance | Level 3 | |
| HM–HX | Social Sciences | Level 4 | |
| J | Political Science | Level 5 | |
| K | Law | Level 5 | Most material with a K callmark is at the Law Library. |
| LD–LG | Education | Level 5 | Most Education books with an L callmark are kept at the W.J. Scott Education Library. |
| M | Music | Level 5 | |
| N | Arts & Architecture | Level 5 | Architecture material (callmarks beginning NA) is mostly at the Architecture & Design Library. |
| P–PM | Languages, Literature (chiefly non-English language) | Level 5 | |
| PN–PZ | Literature | Level 6 | |
| Q–QZ | Science | Level 6 | |
| R–V | Applied Sciences (including Nursing) | Level 6 | |
| Z–ZA | Information Studies, Librarianship | Level 6 |
