Surprisingly few people know that the University Library is also home to the University Archive. From its earliest days as a municipal college of technology, through its polytechnic years, and on to the present day as a leading modern university, the institution that became the University of Portsmouth has been at the heart of the city. Discover our local history, from photographs and architectural plans to course brochures and marketing pamphlets to minute books.

Come and see the beautiful sketches from our first year BA (Hons) Illustration students that we have on display in the library. Students were asked to explore the Library and Special Collections. They picked a topic from a ‘lucky dip’ …

Illustration students work on display in UoP Library Read more »

It was small…only around 5cm by 3cm, a little wonky-looking, and greyscale. Hardly the most ostentatious of signals, tucked away from view on the inside cover of a slightly battered looking book written entirely in French. What it was that …

A Narrative for Nora: from the smallest of clues to an international life story Read more »

I’ve been taking my research much more seriously lately. It’s time I made some progress – I can’t let Pip keep rampaging through the Library like this for much longer, it’s far too distracting for the poor students! After the …

Discovering reliable academic sources… by Pablo the Penguin Read more »

Strategic plans often seem a little detached from day to day work, don’t they? Filled with buzz words and positive intentions, and printed on glossy paper to stand out from the other communications we receive, they can come across as …

Research and the Enquiries team: Rambling into Research (Part 1) Read more »

Portsmouth City Council Library Service is now signed up to the Access to Research scheme.  This trial scheme makes publicly funded research available to everyone free of charge from public libraries.  Access is currently only through the networked computers available library computers; there is no …

Portsmouth public libraries join the Access to Research scheme Read more »

Up until your final year project/dissertation, the many printed and online resources you need will all be available from our own collections.  Sometimes final year research projects and postgraduate research requires access to such specialised information that we could not …

Information from every source and for every purpose Read more »