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
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.
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).
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.
Meet our librarians
Fellow Librarian & Keeper of the Archives
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
Library life
Library
Library
