Facts and figures

The University Library's history dates back to the 1860s. In 1961 the Library became a part of the University of Gothenburg and is today made up by eight libraries and one National Resource Library for Gender Studies.

The History of Gothenburg University Library

The Gothenburg University Library was founded in 1861 as the Göteborgs museum (Museum of Gothenburg) by the politician and publicist Sven Adolf Hedlund.

In 1891 the Gothenburg University College was founded and the museum's library became the Gothenburg City Library. The Library had a focus on research and was meant to service the college but also stay open to the general public. This version of the Gothenburg City Library should not be confused with the City Library of today, that has its roots in the Dickson Public Library. In the year 1900 a library building was built for the operations on Haga Kyrkoplan, today's Social Sciences Library.

In 1961 the Gothenburg City Library became a part of the University of Gothenburg and was given the name Gothenburg University Library. The operations was moved in 1954 to a newly built and more spacious location at Näckrosdammen, a building which later became the Humanities Library.

Gothenburg University Library is today made up by eight libraries and one National Resource Library for Gender Studies, KvinnSam. The Library is open to everyone and the mission is to support research, education and higher studies at the University of Gothenburg.

Wikipedia has a detailed article on the history of the University Library. There you can also read more about the libraries' backgrounds and get more reading tips from the article's reference list.

To Wikipedia's article on the history of the university library

Financial year 2020

This annual report summarizes the financial year's most important events, statistics, and financial results:

Resources

Resource Quantity
Libraries 8
Average number of employees during year 208
Reading places 1 701
Number of volumes 2,83 million
Printed journals 5 029
Electronic journals (not Open Access) 25 392
E-books (not Open Access) 2 667 675
Databases (not Open Access) 562

Use

Use Quantity
Visits per day during semesters 2 420
Loans of physical material per year 159 188
Downloaded articles 6,3 million
Instruction (number of students) 16 676

Finances

Expenses (1000 SEK)
Salaries, competency development 122 505
Rent, locations 43 840
Media acquisitions (details below) 68 009
Other 23 151
Expenses total
257 505
Revenue (1000 SEK)
Budgetary framework from the University of Gothenburg 232 000
Other 10 430
Revenue total 242 430

Media acquisitions

Expenses (1000 SEK)
Books 2 857
Text books 1 708
Printed journals 1 041
Electronic media 62 183
Other publications 220
Media acquisitions total
68 009

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