About UM Library collections

We prioritise acquiring digital versions wherever possible, and only purchase hard copies when digital versions are infeasible (e.g. excessive license costs). We also encourage the use of open resources in both research and education, and support teaching staff who would like to make use of open educational resources in their courses.

Each faculty has a Library Committee, with representatives of students, researchers, teaching staff, clinical staff, the board, and the library. In general, they discuss the library facilities, support and collections for each faculty and for our other stakeholders. Collection budgets are prepared by the Library Committees and set by the Board of the faculty. All Library Committees have one of the libraries scientific information specialists on board as the linking pin with the library.

Prior to the procurement of new (read & publish) licenses, approval from the responsible Library Committee is mandatory. Journal subscriptions are managed in accordance with the preferences of the different departments within the faculties and are re-evaluated every 3-4 years.

Recommendations for the library collection 

If you would like the library to order a particular book or journal, please submit your request here. Please note that our faculties have set (financial and content related) frameworks within which we can consider your purchase suggestions. Requests for subscriptions and licenses for journals and databases will be forwarded to be approved by your faculties library committee.  

Please note that for requesting individual journal articles Inter Library Loan can be used.

Ordering learning materials 

For all faculties: please consider the specific faculty ordering guidelines for course related materials. These guidelines and the budgets for learning materials are set by the faculties’ library committees. 

The FHML, AVM, FPN, FASoS, FL, FSE-UCM, FSE-UCV and SBE-MSI make use of Keylinks Learning Resources to create course related literature lists. Course coordinators can order learning materials via Keylinks. 

FSE and SBE course coordinators can order learning materials via this email address. 

Contact Library Committees and Scientific Information Specialists

Library Committees, with representatives of students, researchers, teaching staff, board and library, are key in making collection decisions. In general, they discuss the library facilities, support and collections for each faculty. Collection budgets are prepared by the Library Committees and set by the Board of the faculty. All Library Committees have one of the libraries scientific information specialists on board as the linking pin with the library.  

You can contact the scientific information specialist via Ask Your Librarian. 

Since we aim to prioritise digital resources over physical ones, the vast majority of the University Library’s collection is available online through our website.

Through LibSearch (our discovery tool), you can explore:

• more than 800,000 e-books,
• over 100,000 journals and their articles and
• over 300,000 physical books

In addition to LibSearch, our Databases provides access to a wide array of licensed online databases and other digital resources tailored to support your research, study, teaching, and patient care needs. We also offer support for discovering Open Educational Resources (OER) via our dedicated OER repositories, helping teachers find freely accessible academic materials.

Master theses are digitally available in our UM Theses database.

Our Users

The University Library in Randwyck houses the hard copy collection for FHML (Faculty of Health, Medicine, & Life Sciences), FPN (Faculty of Psychology & Neurosciences), FSE (Faculty of Science & Engineering), AVM (Academie Verloskunde Maastricht), and the MUMC (Maastricht University Medical Center).

Our Coverage

The University Library in Randwyck and the digital library contain a wide range of e-books, journal articles, and databases covering topics such as Neurology, Psychology, Psychiatry, Immunology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Nursing, Biomechanics, Data and Computer Science, and much more.

In the intriguing Vesalius Room (on the first floor of our library) we highlight our broad anatomy collection in hard copy, 3D and digitally. This room is part of the digital labs in which VR-applications can be explored for well-being and education. 

Our Collection

The collection reflects the study, research, teaching, and patient care needs of our users. We strive to keep an up-to-date and relevant collection in the open stacks of our library.  The FHML and FPN titles within the Randwyck Library will have minimally one lendable copy which can be placed on hold via LibSearch. Beside our open stacks, Randwyck Library also houses a substantial collection of (older) hard copies in the closed stacks which can be requested via LibSearch.

Next to our hard copy collection, we provide access to a wide range of digital resources. Examples of long-term licenses for books, journals and/or databases include AccessMedicine, ACM Digital Library, ClinicalKey, LWW-Health, PsycBooks, PsycINFO, Reaxys, SciFinder,  and UpToDate.

Our Users

The University Library in the Inner City houses the hard copy collection for FASoS (Faculty of Arts and Social Science), FL (Faculty of Law) and SBE (School of Business & Economics).

Our Coverage

The Inner City Library and the digital library contain a wide range of e-books, journal articles, and databases covering topics such as Arts and Culture, Digital Society, European and Global Studies, Dutch, European and International Law, Economics, International Business, Management, Public Policy, Governance, Sustainability, and much more.

Next to that, we have the digital labs in which VR-applications can be explored for well-being and education.

Our Collection

The collection reflects the study, research, and teaching needs of our users. We strive to keep an up-to-date and relevant collection in the open stacks of our library. All titles at Inner City Library will minimally have one lendable hard copy which can be placed on hold via LibSearch. Compulsory literature is available for reference only and can be found on the second floor. Besides our open stacks, the Inner City Library also houses a substantial collection of (older) hard copies in the closed stacks which can be requested via LibSearch.

Next to our hard copy collection, we provide access to a wide range of resources. Examples of long-term licenses for books, journals and/or databases include Beck-Online Premium, Business Source Complete, Dalloz.fr, EUR-Lex, FactSet, InView Essential, JSTOR, Nexis Uni, Project Muse, HeinOnline, WestlawNext and Wharton.

The Central Collection contains sources that relate to faculty-transcending disciplines such as (science) communication, education, sociology, language, mathematics and statistics and support students, researchers and teaching staff in a general way when developing knowledge and skills at Maastricht University.

The Special Collections (including the UM Digital Heritage Collections) are the heritage collections at Maastricht University Library: from the past, with important value for today’s society, education and research.

In relation to our collections, you will find related information on the following pages: 

Locations and opening hours

Borrowing books

Inter Library Loan (to order books or articles that are not part of the UM collection)