Library & Archive

Always a hub of academic life, Girton has one of the largest and most comprehensive College libraries in the University, holding in the region of 95,000 books. Maintained by knowledgeable and responsive staff, the library provides a wonderful environment in which to study and learn.

The 1930s building, with its awe-inspiring vaulted timber ceiling, was complemented in 2005 by a multi-award winning extension. This created a spacious IT resource area and a state-of-the-art repository to house the Archive and the Special Collections. These collections range from rare Sanskrit manuscripts to gifts of books from Girton's most notable early supporters such as Tennyson, Ruskin and George Eliot. There are extensive and internationally important collections on the history of women and work, the suffrage movement, and women's education, as well as an extensive archive of the College’s ground-breaking history.