The National Oceanographic Library holds a unique collection within its archives and special collections.
We have a digital archive which is available to view.
Our physical collection includes scientific data, photographs, monographs, slides, videos, and other media.
For further information please visit our archives and special collections webpage.
When you enter the details of the item that you want into Library Search (our catalogue) it will display a call number or code that tells you where the item is shelved.
The call number will usually look something like these examples:
TK 2380.45 GAR
306.47 GEL
B OCEAN (Physical) Kna
Although the codes look different, they work in much the same way: the combinations of letters and numbers gives a location based on the subject content of the item. The items are arranged on the shelves using the call numbers.
The library floor plan will show you where items with particular call numbers are stored.
Find out more about borrowing books from our library guide.
Includes information about:
Past exam papers are available from this online database.
Use this form to suggest items to purchase for the National Oceanographic Library collections.
The original library collection was formed from the Discovery Library, housed in Queen Anne’s Gate, the Admiralty, London, where it supported the members of the Discovery Committee from 1925-1945. The collection is rich in special collection items, including expedition reports and books dating from the 1770s, archives of the Discovery Committee and the Discovery ships (as in the image on the left), and over 2,500 images of the expeditions between 1925-1940. The collection moved and formed the basis of the library at the National Institute of Oceanography in Wormley, Surrey, after the Second World War.
The National Oceanographic Library was given its title in the 1980s in recognition of its importance as a significant collection of marine resources in the UK. Its value as a national library continued to be maintained when it transferred to the Southampton Oceanography Centre in 1995 and became linked with the University of Southampton. As part of the establishment of the library in the new location, the collection expanded to include not only marine science, with collections from the Oceanography Department, but also marine geophysics resources from the Physics Department, and geology resources from the Geology Department.
The library continues to acquire resources from marine and earth science to support education and research at the centre. All the resources within the National Oceanographic Library have been purchased with funding from the National Oceanography Centre or the University of Southampton, or they have been donated.
The collection, which is comprehensive from the mid-19th century, includes books, reports, loose papers, expedition reports, journals, conference proceedings, maps, atlases, and charts, covering the subject areas of oceanography, deep-sea research, and earth sciences, including geology and geophysics.
The National Oceanographic Library also includes resources on estuarine, coastal, and shelf sea circulation, wind wave dynamics, sediment transport processes, global sea level science, geodetic oceanography, marine technology, and operational oceanography.
To check the collections at the National Oceanographic Library please use the library catalogue.
The National Oceanographic Library uses its own classification scheme:
If you need assistance finding materials, then please speak to the staff at the help desk and they will be happy to help you.
The following guides explain how to find and locate books, printed journals, reports, and loose papers:
The National Oceanographic Library houses the School of Ocean and Earth Science collection of undergraduate (3rd year project) and taught Masters dissertations. Dissertations submitted between 2011 and 2019 are in the library and are available to view on request (older ones are stored in our archives and are also available to view on request). All of the dissertations up to 2019 are listed in the library catalogue.
Undergraduate dissertations from 2020 onwards are stored as electronic versions here: SOES Undergraduate Dissertations. (If the link does not work, then press the button to Request Access. Please note that this SharePoint site is maintained by the School of Ocean and Earth Science.)
Recent Masters dissertations can be found here: SOES Postgraduate Taught Dissertations. (If the link does not work, then press the button to Request Access. Please note that this SharePoint site is maintained by the School of Ocean and Earth Science.)
The National Oceanographic Library holds print copies of all the School of Ocean and Earth Science doctoral theses in our archives; these are listed on the library catalogue and many of these are now also available online from ePrints Soton. Please ask staff at the help desk if you need to see a printed copy of a thesis.
If the item you are looking for is not on our catalogue, we can still try to get it for you:
Our interlibrary loan service can be used to request books or articles from other university libraries.
If the library does not have the book or journal that you need, and you are a staff member, then please email us to suggest a purchase if you would like it added to our collection.
Open access journal articles
Journal articles that are not part of our subscription can sometimes still be found in open access repositories.
Unpaywall, Open Access Button, and CORE Discovery are Chrome and Firefox extensions that can find legal open access copies. Open Access Helper works the same way for iOS and Safari.
If you find an article that is behind a paywall, then try copy and pasting the article title into a search engine. If there is a copy in a repository, then it will often display on the first page of the search results.
And remember!
To connect to library resources, such as databases and journals, you will need to use the University’s VPN service called Globalprotect. Advice on how to set up your connection can be found on the iSolutions page: How do I set up VPN on my device?