Libraries

College Library

The College Library occupies the former chapel, refectory and chapter house of the convent of the Society of the Holy and Undivided Trinity for whom what we now call the Old Main Building was originally built.

The Library seeks to provide core teaching materials for courses taken by substantial numbers of members, and maintain its historic strengths. Collections on international relations, development studies, modern history, politics, and economics, as well as area studies of Africa, Asia (not including the Middle East or Japan), Europe, Russia and the former USSR (in languages other than Russian) are especially strong. The Library also houses a collection of archival materials which contains private papers relating to twentieth-century Europe, of particular importance being those of Sir John Wheeler-Bennett.

The College Library primarily supports members of St Antony’s, unlike other libraries on site which fulfil a wider role in providing facilities to all members of the University whose studies are within their orbit. However, external readers often visit to view rare and unique materials.

Readers may find records of books within the collection, and search the University’s rich collection of e-journals, e-books, and databases, through SOLO.

Please see the Library webpage for further information about the College Library including its terms of use.

Other Libraries on the St Antony’s site

Bodleian Japanese Library

The Bodleian Japanese Library was opened in 1993 in the Nissan Institute building. It houses the University of Oxford’s principal collections relating to Japan in the humanities and social sciences and supports both teaching and research in these areas.  

It is an open-access library, with seating space for forty-two users at any one time. It consists of the Main Reading Room and offices on the ground floor, the Bookstack, the New Media Room, and the Rare Book Room in the basement. The main collection is in the Bookstack, while the reference works are arranged by subject on the perimeter shelves in the Main Reading Room.

Please see here for further information.

Bodleian Latin American Centre Library

The Bodleian Latin American Centre Library at 1 Church Walk is a specialist lending collection for those studying Latin American politics, economics and social sciences. It also has an extensive history collection, focused in particular on the twentieth century. Located at the Latin American Centre, it not only supports the Centre’s postgraduate students but welcomes all current resident members of the University who are interested in the subject area.

The library houses some 18,000 volumes, together with journals, a wide ranging grey literature collection, microfilms and DVDs.
The stock is regularly updated. It has three reading rooms, all with wifi.

The library is part of the Social Sciences Group of the Bodleian Libraries and is both a focus of scholarship and a popular meeting place for students. Books purchased since 1991 are catalogued on SOLO. Please see the Library webpage for further information.

Middle East Centre Library

The Middle East Centre (MEC) library was established in 1958 with the mission of providing library resources on Modern Middle Eastern Studies for students and scholars worldwide.

The collection, of over 40,000 items, comprises books, journals, pamphlets,  microfilmed resources, DVDs and lithographs as well as grey literature (mainly Oxford University theses). The library also holds a collection of rare books and manuscripts.

The library holdings cover all aspects of the history and societies of the contemporary Middle East, i.e. the Arab countries, Turkey, Iran and Israel, from the late 17th century to the present day.

Subjects include but are not limited to constitutional history, national movements, political science and economics, international relations and industrial development, as well as media, gender studies, and modern Islamic movements. Linguistically, the library holdings span all European languages, as well as Arabic, Persian and Turkish.

The entire book collection is catalogued on SOLO.  For further details please check the Library webpage.

The Middle East Centre Archive

The Middle East Centre Archive was founded in 1961 by Elizabeth Monroe and Albert Hourani with the aim of preserving and making available for research the papers and photographs of individuals who have lived or served in the Middle East, as for example senior Government representatives, members of the armed forces, bankers, businessmen, teachers, missionaries or travellers.

The collection now contains over 2,900 boxes of papers and more than 200,000 photographs of over 700 individuals or organisations covering the period 1800 to the present day with strong holdings for the Palestine Mandate and for Oman in the 1970s.

Further information about using the Archive is available from our webpage and there are guides and catalogues online

Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre Library

St Antony’s Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre Library has approximately 24,000 volumes and subscribes to a wide range of journals. The Centre library has specialist strength within certain fields, especially Russian and Soviet politics, history and literature. Holdings are primarily in Russian. Since 1991 acquisitions have been catalogued on SOLO.

Please see the Library webpage for further information about this library.