The ‘Committee for Assessing Ethical Aspects of Partnerships’ is being launched this month. This committee, created by Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl and consisting of former and present Leiden University researchers, has been tasked with assessing Leiden University’s institutional ties with organisations…

Do you frequently search the catalogue of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) for western medieval manuscripts? Then you must have noticed important changes lately. Some 1800 summary catalogue records in Dutch were replaced by more elaborate descriptions in English. Furthermore, the catalogue interface…

Lifelike gods, provisional professors and the city militia with weapons a clanking. Leiden put on a colourful procession and drummed up hundreds of citizens to celebrate the foundation of the first university of the Republic of the Netherlands on 8 February 1575. 'It wasn't a party just for the sake…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made more than five hundred medieval handwritten text sources available online via Digital Collections. This makes a third of her collection of Western medieval manuscripts – one of the largest and the most important in the Netherlands – available in high resolution…

Library, Research

Modern Arabic titles in the catalogue of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) can now also be consulted in original Arabic script. Taking away the need to transliterate titles, has made searching for Arabic source materials in the catalogue much easier and more efficient for users.

Ludo Waltman, professor of Quantitative Science Studies at Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), has been awarded the Derek de Solla Price Medal.

On 15 March, the Centre for Digital Scholarship at Leiden University Libraries has started the pilot ‘You share we take care’. In cooperation with Leiden University researchers, the program aims to make publications freely available six months after initial publication. More than 60 researchers from…

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in Ancient Near East Studies. Last update: October 2020

The Leiden University Visual Ethnography collection has been added to Alexander Street Press, an educational streaming video service. The master’s specialization Visual Ethnography has supported many talented individuals to produce inspiring films. About 70 master’s thesis films of the past 8 years…

Since the demonstration over a year ago on the Wijnhaven campus, Leiden University has developed plans and initiatives to create the safest possible work and study environment for our university community. The Executive Board would like to explain what has happened since and what else we can expect…

Two Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) have been placed in front of the University Library in memory of the Jewish Cosman family. At the time of the Second World War, they lived in one of the houses where the library is now located.

To mark the university’s 450th anniversary, the Leiden Discoveries science route has been updated and was relaunched on the Night of Discoveries. New signs in town and a revamped website tell Leiden residents and visitors the stories of the city’s spectacular discoveries.

The Dutch Revolt or Eighty Years’ War and the Dutch Golden Age have traditionally been described in the national historiography as glorious periods; with the Dutch Revolt being depicted as a heroic battle for independence and the Dutch Golden Age as an unparalleled political, economic and cultural success…

The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), The Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU), The Dutch Research Council (NWO) and information and analytics business Elsevier have reached a framework agreement.

Library, Organisation, Research

A previously unknown document about Rembrandt’s student years in Leiden has been found in the archive of Leiden University. The document, which is being kept at the University Library, proves that Rembrandt studied at Leiden University for longer than has always been assumed.

Starting January 18, the online exhibition Images of the Indonesian War of Independence, 1945-1949 can be viewed via the UBL website. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) and Leiden University Libraries…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made 45,000 digitised daguerreotypes, autochrome plates, photo prints, albums, cameras and other objects from its photography collections available through Digital Collections. This means that parts of the oldest photo collection in the Netherlands are now digitally…

Rembrandt Year is concluding with a major exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal. There are still numerous other activities such as lectures, the University Rembrandt Route and the screening of a critical documentary.

Egyptologist Marleen De Meyer has been appointed the new Director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC). Dr De Meyer has worked for the institute, which promotes Egyptian, Dutch and Flemish collaboration in the field of education and research, since 2016.

UNESCO has recognized an international set of fifteen manuscripts about Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe and the three Hikayat Aceh manuscripts as World Heritage. The manuscripts are inscribed in the global UNESCO Memory of the World Register. This list contains documentary heritage…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has digitized more than a thousand individual manuscripts and several complete archives from the post-medieval western manuscript and archives collection and made them available online through Digital Collections. With this, some of the most important archives and masterpieces…

Better pay and new agreements with streaming platforms: the actors’ strike that brought Hollywood to a standstill a few days ago is mainly about money. But there is something else that film actors are worried about: the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence. Is this fear justified?

Three enormous maps of China, created during the reign of three different emperors of the Qing dynasty, have now been made available in open access and are downloadable via Leiden University Libraries’ (UBL) Digital Collections. The rich maps are an early example of academic collaboration between the…

Part of the Leiden University Libraries’ (UBL) collections on Southeast Asia is now available in digital form for research, educational purposes and the general public. The collections consist of manuscripts, old prints, photos and maps of Southeast Asia, which have been made available via Digital Collections.…

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker will head a delegation that is visiting Indonesia at the end of June. The visit is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘Leiden’ institute KITLV-Jakarta. What does this institute do and why is Indonesia important to the University?

The Greek diasporic queer poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933) has been recognized as a central figure in world literature and literary modernism. On December 9th, a symposium around his work will take place at Leiden University Libraries. This will be combined with the launch of Maria Boletsi's book…

The G.W.J. Drewes Fund was invoked to celebrate the transfer of the scholarly legacy of Professor Drewes to the UBL and to mark the opening of the Asia Library in the University Library at the Witte Singel. The fund provides financial support to one or more fellowships at the Scaliger Institute. The…

The South Asian and Tibetan special collections provide material pertaining to the languages, histories, philosophies, art and material cultures of the region. The focus lies on Sanskrit, Tibetan, Lepcha, and Buddhism, but the collections also hold rich visual material for educational and academic purposes…

The Lingling Wiyadharma Fellowship program offers the opportunity to three scholars to spend up to three months conducting research using the Southeast Asian and particularly the Indonesian special collections at Leiden University Libraries.

The Robert van Gulik Fund has established a Robert van Gulik Fellowship at the Scaliger Institute with effect from 2025. The fund thus supports the promotion of research on the sinological collections of the Leiden University Libraries.

Looking for a book? Materials within the Leiden University Libraries (UBL) collection are (mostly) arranged according to the Library of Congress Classification.

Do you have plans to conduct scientific research on the basis of the extensive digital collections of Leiden University Libraries (UBL)? Then the Fellowship Program for Digital Scholarship sponsored by Elsevier is something for you.

The photo collection of South and Southeast Asia contains material collected by the Kern Institute and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). In addition to photo prints in various techniques, the collection also includes (lantern) slides, picture postcards…

The libraries offer over 2300 study places. Some are freely available, some are available to Leiden University students only.

The Juynboll Foundation and the Scaliger Institute of Leiden University Libraries have founded a collaborative fellowship program to enable one or two scholars to study the Arabic and Islam special collections of Leiden University Libraries. The allowance is € 1,500 per month.

The Asian Library holds the largest collection on Indonesia worldwide, and some of the foremost collections on South and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea.

The Isaac Alfred Ailion Fellowship will support scholars to work with the extensive Special Collections of Leiden University in the field of Japanese culture and language for a period of maximum three months.

Open Access provides free online availability of research output without restrictions. Open Access increases the visibility of a publication enormously. The Executive Board has decided that Leiden University will endorse Open Access.

As of 2017 the Wouter Swets Foundation has invoked a Wouter Swets Fellowship at the Scaliger Institute. The Foundation supports the promotion of research into the holdings relating to the musical tradition from the Balkans and Turkey to Central Asia in the Special Collections of Leiden University Li…

Since 2006, publishing house Brill in Leiden has sponsored the appointment of so-called 'Brill Fellows'. The Brill Fellow researches items in the department Special Collections of Leiden University; as much as possible, this research is based on any of the specific publishing areas of publishing house…

As of 2017 the Vera Gottschalk-Frank Foundation has invoked an Arminius Fellowship at the Scaliger Institute. The Foundation supports the promotion of research into all holdings relating to the Remonstrants in the Special Collections of Leiden University Libraries.

The main focus of the Islamic World Special Collections is on the Middle East and North Africa, with smaller holdings from Indonesia, the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia as far as Xinjiang, China.

Old maps, beautifully coloured drawings, early photographs, rare books, and even a genuine love letter. Leiden University Libraries (UBL) holds an important and diverse Japan collection. From January through December 2026, we will organize various public activities around the Japan collections.

Education, Library

The collection guides of archives and collections of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) have been made available via the portal Collection Guides. This has greatly improved the findability, visibility and ease of use of these collection finding aids.

The Dutch universities will give Open Access an extra boost from 2019 by starting a pilot titled ‘You share, we take care’ to make publications available after six months in collaboration with researchers.

Library, Research

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) would like to invite you for the symposium Rediscovered: new technologies on historical artifacts on Friday 16 November, from 10.00-18.00. The symposium will be held in the Vossius room of the UBL at Witte Singel 27.