Special Collections

Founded in 1833 and occupying listed buildings within the Durham World Heritage site, the Palace Green Library of Durham University houses archives, early printed books and other special collections. There are:

• Over 70,000 books printed before 1850 including 300 incunables
• Over 100 Medieval manuscripts
• 3,400 metres of archives and artefacts
• Over 30,000 maps and prints and 100,000 photographs

We are open to anyone needing to consult our collections once they have registered with us.

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Collection moves 2012-13

If you are planning to come to Durham to consult our collections, please read the following carefully and contact us if you need any assistance.

May 2012

The Sudan Archive, Durham Probate, Durham Halmote Court and most of the printed map collections have now moved to our nearby 5 The College site. They are accessible there, along with the cathedral's archive, Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm.

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Building works - 2012

The next phase of building works at Palace Green Library has now started. This will see the storage and conservation facilities enhanced and should be completed by the end of July 2012. We intend to maintain services to readers as far as possible, however, there will be some noise and possibly occasional disruption to access to both some of the collections and even to the building itself.
There will be further building works starting in October 2012 which will necessitate transferring further collections from Palace Green to 5 The College. We are intending to maintain access to all our collections as far as possible throughout all these moves and works, but if you are intending to use Special Collections during 2012 and 2013, please contact us beforehand on 0191 3342972 or pg.library@durham.ac.uk to ascertain where you might need to go and whether there might be any temporary restrictions in place.
Please keep checking the website for details.
This only affects the Palace Green site and not 5 The College. The Treasures exhibition at Palace Green will remain open.

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Two of the University Library's special collections were awarded Designated status in 2005 in the first round of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council Designation Scheme.

The Treasures of Durham University exhibition

The inaugural exhibition in the new Wolfson Gallery includes many of  treasures from our heritage collections. Covering diverse topics from science and exploration to  faith and religion, the treasures have been drawn from collections across the University, including the Oriental Museum, the Old Fulling Mill Museum of Archaeology, Durham Castle and Palace Green Library.

The Treasures of Durham University exhibition is on display  in the Wolfson Gallery, Palace Green Library, Durham. For more information please visit our Exhibitions pages.