The majority of books held by the Bodleian Libraries, in both physical and electronic formats, can be searched for via SOLO. If you are new to Oxford libraries or to SOLO, we recommend visiting the 'Getting Started' and 'How to' guides at the links below.
A list of guides providing foundational information on accessing resources and using the Bodleian Libraries.
Find information on how to use our key resource discovery tools, library services and more.
The following tabs list Oxford libraries with physical collections of interest to those studying Egyptology. Collections access and borrowing privileges are subject to conditions; please check individual library websites for further information.
For those wishing to learn more about searching for physical collections in Oxford, we recommend the following:
Intended for students and researchers at the University of Oxford, or those visiting, who seek support in using the Bodleian Libraries resource discovery tool, SOLO.
Intended for students and researchers using Special Collections, particularly those held in the Weston Library.
Webpages detailing the Bodleian Libraries collections of Oxford and international theses.
The Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library is one of the Bodleian Libraries’ principal research libraries and home to the main research collections for Egyptology as well as Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Classics and Ancient History, Papyrology, Numismatics, Archaeology, Eastern Art and Western Art. This unique combination of subjects in one building respects their overlaps to the effect that all aspects and periods of Egyptology, inc Coptology and Sudanology, are fully covered to and excluding the coming of Islam. It offers borrowing services, IT and printing facilities and workspaces. It provides for taught courses and research. Less frequently used books are stored offsite and need to be requested to a reading room via SOLO.
The Bodleian Library is the University's largest library, with holdings numbering several million items. Frequently used books on Egyptology, Late Antique Egypt, Papyrology and Epigraphy are kept in the Lower Reading Room. Less frequently used books are stored offsite and need to be requested to a reading room via SOLO.
Queen's College has a long association with Egyptology at Oxford. The Peet Library, which comprises c. 3,400 books on Egyptology, is a specialist collection of Egyptology material which is maintained and updated by Queen's College library. It was donated by Sir Alan Gardiner (1879–1963) in memory of Professor Thomas Eric Peet (1882–1934), a noted Egyptologist and a Fellow of Queen’s. It is open to all students of Egyptology in the University and anyone else who can prove that access to the collection will be beneficial to their studies. In order to gain access, you must contact the Professor of Egyptology, richard.parkinson(AT)queens.ox.ac.uk .
Holds books relevant to Bible Studies.
Holds titles on the Middle East from the Arab conquest onwards.
Holds various titles relevant to ancient oriental religions and languages.
Holds various titles relevant to ancient oriental religions.
Ebooks are digital manifestations of written works. Broadly speaking they come in two forms: they are either 'born digital' or are digital reproductions of printed books. Many have enhanced functionality, while some have restrictive access and usage terms.
The Blog post Why can't the library provide everything electronically? explains why you will not always find an electronic copy of a publication on SOLO.
The links below are provided for those wishing to learn more about ebooks, while the following tabs list ebook collections and platforms relevant to to those studying Egyptology.
A guide intended for students and staff using or likely to use ebooks in the course of their studies and research.
A guide intended for students and researchers at the University of Oxford, or those visiting, who seek support in using the Bodleian Libraries’ electronic Legal Deposit collection.
Information on accessing Bodleian Libraries content remotely.
The e-resources team use this blog to help keep you informed of news and changes in the world of e-journals and databases.
The following is a list of ebook collections applicable to those studying Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Oxford. We recommend visiting Databases A-Z for a full breakdown of eresource packages, including trials and new arrivals, available to Oxford University members.
Oxford subscribes to a wide range of eresources, including ejournals and ebooks to support your research and study. Find the best library databases for your research here.
A selection of dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedias useful to those studying Egyptology:
A number of eresources, including ebook collections, are freely available online. Some of these are indexed in Databases A-Z and can be identified by the following icon: 
A selection of other free ebook collections, not listed on Databases A-Z, are also given below.
Ancient World Digital Library is an initiative of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and aims at providing access to a broad range of scholarly materials relevant to the study of the ancient world. Expanding the collection, AWDL is actively soliciting partnerships with publishers, scholarly societies, organizations and individuals who hold the rights to scholarly content..
Ancient World Online is in the first instance a database for open access material relating to the ancient world, inc Ancient Egypt, Nubia, the Sudan, Papyrology and Late Roman Egypt.
A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
CORE’s mission is to aggregate all open access research outputs from repositories and journals worldwide and make them available to the public. In this way CORE facilitates free unrestricted access to research for all. A vast amount of material on Egyptology can be accessed through this portal.
Provides links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available free
Based at the British Library EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service which aims to maximise the visibility and availability of the UK’s doctoral research theses.
The Getty Research Portal is an online platform providing global access to digitized art history texts, inc many older books on Ancient Egypt, the Sudan and the Ancient Near East. It provides access to digitized resources for the printed literature of art, including fundamental texts, rare books, exhibition catalogues, auction catalogues, and related literature.
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.
This is a portal to the Metropolitan Museum's comprehensive publishing programme with over 1,500 titles, including books, online publications, and Bulletins and Journals from the last five decades.
Open Book Publishers is one of the biggest independent open access academic publishers of monographs in the UK.
Many Egyptological publications by the OI are available as Open Access and can be downloaded from their website.
Propylaeum DOK is the full-text server of the Specialized Information Service Classics and is made available by the University Library of Heidelberg. It includes Egyptological and Ancient Near Eastern Studies electronic publications.
Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Center (US)
Access to 2 million+ museum, archive, library and research holdings and collections across the Smithsonian's various sub-entitiess.
If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the print or ebook you are looking for, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Oxford Single-Sign On required).
If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the book you are looking for, we may be able to source it through Oxford's inter-library loan service.
There are a number of reasons why the Bodleian Libraries may be unable to provide electronic access to a resource. The ebooks guide explains some of these reasons: