What are you looking for?

Find the perfect place to study in our College libraries. Offering 24-hour access to books and journals across every subject alongside dedicated professional support, the Library will be your academic home at Worcester.

The Library

1736

Opening date of the Library to the designs of Dr George Clarke

3

helpful and knowledgeable librarians

65,000

books for you to use and borrow in the modern lending collection

66

individual study desks available

3

separate reading rooms

24/7

reading rooms open throughout the day and night

1736

Opening date of the Library to the designs of Dr George Clarke

3

helpful and knowledgeable librarians

65,000

books for you to use and borrow in the modern lending collection

66

individual study desks available

3

separate reading rooms

24/7

reading rooms open throughout the day and night

Library reading room

Our library spaces

Worcester students have marveled at the magnificent Lower Library for generations. This beautiful space is a popular quiet study area where you can write your essays surrounded by the treasures of our special collections. Head upstairs and you’ll find the modern collections, more study spots and the support desk. The Upper Library and separate Law Library are open 24 hours a day, allowing you to study according to your own schedule.

Discover our special collections

Bookshelf with An Oxford Tragedy by J.C. Masterman

Our collections

We purchase hundreds of new books each year and actively welcome suggestions from students. Don’t have the book you need? Just let us know and we’ll do our best to help. Worcester is also home to the ever-expanding Eland Collection of books on architectural history (bequeathed by Cyril Eland in 1995) and the Vigornienses collection of books by and about our alumni (named for the College’s Latin moniker).

Composite of book covers from sustainability on the shelves project

Sustainability on the shelves

We asked students ‘what should we read in Worcester to learn more about sustainability?’ to mark the University’s new Sustainability Strategy in 2021. We considered ‘sustainability’ in the broadest possible terms – environmental sustainability, but also social and economic sustainability. As a result, we added the twelve books below to our collections, covering topics ranging from clean energy and technology, to the Planetary Health Diet and economic revolution, to more philosophical works that look at our cultural and personal relationships with the environment. All of these titles are now available in the Library and can be borrowed by College members.

Explore the sustainability bookshelf

Meet our librarians

Headshot of Mark Bainbridge

Fellow Librarian & Keeper of the Archives

Mark Bainbridge

Headshot of Mark Bainbridge

Mark Bainbridge

Fellow Librarian & Keeper of the Archives

Data Protection Officer

Education

MA MPhil (Oxford), MSc (City, London)

As Librarian, I am responsible for the College’s libraries. I run the modern library for current members and care for the historic library’s special collections of manuscripts, early printed books, prints and drawings, making them available to researchers. I have been at Worcester since 2011.

Assistant Librarian

Renée Prud’Homme

Renée Prud’Homme

Assistant Librarian

Renée is Worcester’s Assistant Librarian and can be contacted for enquiries about photographic requests and modern books not held in other Oxford library collections.

Senior Library Assistant

Kamila Pecher

Kamila Pecher

Senior Library Assistant

Library life

Student working in the library

Globe and rare books in the library

Library

Vigornienses book plate

Law Library

Shelves in the library

Library stacks

Student working in the library

Globe and rare books in the library

Library

Vigornienses book plate

Law Library

Shelves in the library

Library stacks