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Brief description of the Library & Information Center

The Library and Information Center (LIC) of the University of Patras constitutes the central library and three branches. Together with some Departmental libraries and reading rooms they form the network of UPatras Libraries. The Library is open to all interested individuals, but its main mission is to serve the members of the academic community of the University. Consequently, the LIC members are:

  • Faculty and research staff of the University of Patras (UP)
  • Students of UP
  • Postgraduate and PhD students of the UP
  • Employees of the UP

In order for these members to enjoy its services, a valid Member Card is mandatory.

Non-members of the academic community may also use the Library as External Users, when they register, and pay the one off fee of 30 Euros for a Member Card. Unemployed citizens can issue a Member Card without a fee, if they present a valid Unemployment Card.

The member card can be issued by completing an application. By registering at the Library, the user declares that he/she acknowledges and accepts the Library Regulation. Library visitors, i.e. those who do not have a member card, must comply with the regulations governing the use of premises and certain on-site services.

The spaces, collections and services of the Library extend across to four floors. There are four hundred (400) study places, a small computer room with eight workstations, five (5) collaborative study rooms available to work groups of teachers, undergraduates and postgraduates, five (5) individual reading rooms, a conference room with a capacity of 76 people, a user instruction room, with a capacity of 20 people. One hundred and thirty-two lockers are available in the cloakroom area to secure your stuff.

You can connect to the university network through either wired and wireless internet connections and gain full access to the electronic resources of the Library. The process is very simple and is done through the Eduroam-enabled network of the University.

LIC Members and visitors with mobility disabilities or visual impairment, can use the special workstations on the second floor, equipped with provide access information technologies that support access to our electronic resources.

For general enquires about study spaces and reading rooms, please contact the Circulation Unit on the first floor (phone: 0030 2610 969620-21).

The Library has a rich collection of printed books that covers the faculty and research needs of the university community. The main collection is located on the first and second floors. The collection is divided into smaller subsets, such as the Reference collection (encyclopedias, dictionaries, manuals, monographs, etc.), the large-format book collection, and the collection of multiple copies found on special shelves on the first floor. Donations are held on the third floor and the doctoral theses are located on the ground floor. All printed material is recorded in the “Nereus” Library catalog, which also has an English search interface.

For information on:

  • printed material and books, contact the Circulation Unit (phone: 0030 2610 969620).
  • journals (current and previous subscriptions), contact the User Support Unit (phone: 0030 2610 969 624).

The LIC provides access to more than 14,000 electronic journals and electronic resources, either via institutional subscriptions from the University of Patras or via HEAL Link (the collaborative Consortium of Academic Libraries). These journals cover all the scientific disciplines studied at the University of Patras. In many cases access goes back to the first issue of the journal.

LIC also provides access to thousands of eBooks and eReference material. Through these collections, you can access the complete content of books, encyclopedias, technical manuals, conference proceedings, etc.

These resources can be accessed through the Find discovery service.

Access to electronic resources is possible through the University network. For remote access, it is necessary to use your institutional account (e-mail type upatras.gr) together with the VPN software that the Networks Department supplies. Alternatively, you can connect through the systems and platforms of selected providers of electronic resources with the same information.

Once you have found the material you are interested in, you can download it and either save it to a removable media or print it. The Library has black and white, A4 size printing facilities to print your files. For this service, a member’s card is required and the cost is 0.05 € per page. This service is subjected to the rules and conditions set forth in the Regulation of Use of Services and Computer Resources.

To obtain information about the services and computer resources please contact the Users Support Unit, on the second floor (phone: 0030 2610 969624-30).

If you cannot find the material you want within our collections, we can try to locate it and borrow it for you from another library, via the interlibrary loan service (ILL). In order to satisfy those requests, the ILL Service applies to either a domestic library or to a foreign library. To obtain more information about the ILL service and its costs, contact the ILL office located on the first floor (phone: 0030 2610 969 622).

For general information / queries please contact the Library by the contact form. Also, you can keep in contact with our Library through its Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/libraryupatras and its Twitter/X account: http://www.twitter.com/libraryupatras