Welcome to the Library

Find Your Library

There are five main library buildings:

• The Library Complex: Eavan Boland, Lecky, and Ussher Libraries - material for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, plus some other subjects such as Nursing & Midwifery
  • Kinsella Hall, our 24-hour study space open to all Trinity students, is located in the Ussher Library
  • Also includes a shared reading room in the Ussher for our Research Collections:
    • Early Printed Books & Special Collections - the oldest and most valuable books in an ever-expanding collection
    • Manuscripts & Archives - more than 20,000 collections of manuscripts and archives, dating from the 13th century BC to the present day (access to manuscripts is by appointment only; e-mail mscripts@tcd.ie)
• The Hamilton Library - books for the Health Sciences, Natural Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics and Mathematics
• The John Stearne Medical Library - located in the Trinity Centre for the Health Sciences at St James's Hospital, this library holds Trinity's medical collection
• The 1937 Reading Room - a study area for postgraduate students only
• The Old Library - home of the Book of Kells

Some subjects may have copies of books in more than one library.

Access and Opening Hours

You need your student card (TCard) or Trinity Live App to enter the libraries and to borrow. To access Kinsella Hall or, for postgraduates, the 1937 Reading Room, you will need your student card, not just the app.    

Each library building has its own opening hours, which change outside of term-time. The Library homepage always displays today's hours. You can see future times on our opening hours page.

All opening hours by library building

Locating Books

Borrowing

Use the self-service kiosks to borrow and return books from the shelves, and to return books from storage if no longer needed. Use the Library counters to borrow and return books, and to collect books ordered from storage using Click and Collect.

If you're an undergraduate student you can borrow up to ten books at a time.

If you're a Masters or doctoral student, you can borrow up to a total of 50 items.

Overview of borrowing entitlements and loan periods

Accessing E-Books and Articles

The Library subscribes to BrowZine, which works by organising journal articles and arranging these journals on a common newsstand. The result is a comfortable and easy way to browse, read and monitor academic journals in your subject.

Your Subject Librarian

Subject Librarians have individual websites packed full of quality online resources to use in your assignment, essay or other research. E-mail your Subject Librarian about your training needs: classes and one-to-one consultations can be provided on a range of information skills, including using the Library catalogue, how to cite references and avoid plagiarism, database searching, evaluating information, and EndNote. 

List of Subject Librarians

Library HITS Classes

Join us for Library HITS (Helpful Information for Trinity Staff/Students), a series of taster sessions delivered by the Library and Student Learning  Development (SLD). Most classes last 50 minutes. The Library will post all details (subject, times and dates) for forthcoming HITS in the next semester and will promote them widely across the Library social media channels well in advance.

HITS timetable & details of classes

An Inclusive Library

The Library is committed to providing an inclusive library environment so that all readers have complete and equitable access to the entire Library service.

More details of services and facilities to promote inclusion and accessibility

Printing

The printing, scanning and photocopying facilities in the Libraries are managed by IT Services and the Library, and provided by Datapac. There are multi-function devices (MFDs) in the Libraries. In order to use this service you must first credit your print account.

Wi-Fi

Most of Trinity, including all the libraries, has Wi-Fi that can be used with laptops, phones and tablets, but it needs to be set up for each device.