Library

The Society library holds a collection of over 12,000 volumes of natural history books and journals. You can use the search function on the right to find a book or view the library catalogue.

Located on the 2nd floor of the Great North Museum: Hancock, in central Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this modern and friendly library is the perfect place to browse books or to carry out more in-depth research.
Opening times are Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm, during university term times. 
The library is free and open to the general public but only members of the Society are able to borrow books.

Our collection of books and journals has been acquired through donation and purchase since the Society’s foundation in 1829, and it is now one of the largest natural history libraries in northern England, it includes:

  • The latest field guides for birds, plants, mammals and insects from around the world.
  • Regional, national and international journals and books about ecology, zoology, botany, ornithology, entomology, geology, and conservation.
  • Old and historically valuable books.
  • Biographies of regional naturalists and the history of natural history.

Our older books are not on display but are available to view in the library and can be seen by making an appointment with the librarian.

The library also houses the collections of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Newcastle University’s Cowen Library and you are welcome to consult books from all three collections.

For all enquiries and holiday time opening hours please contact the library on 0191 222 3555 or gnmlibrary@twmuseums.org.uk

If you’d like to find out more about the library collections click on the links below.

Library Blog

History of the library

Get involved with the library

Borrowing books

Search Library Catalogue

To search our Library catalogue, please enter a keyword into the input field e.g. the author name, the subject type or the year and click 'Search Catalogue'.

Alternatively, browse our full catalogue by leaving the input empty. Please bear in mind though that we stock over 5000 book titles so please allow a few moments for the page to load.

About the search function

The search function above allows you to search our book catalogue to find books by author, date or by a word included in the title of the book. It is quicker to search than to browse the catalogue due to the size of the catalogue.

Our Journal Collection

In addition to our books we also have 1,000s of journals and periodicals in our library.

Click here to download our journal catalogue which lists journals in alphabetical order. We subscribe to specialists journals such as The Entomologist and Journal of Animal Ecology, more popular magazines such as Birding World and British Wildlife and we also have a collection of historic journals dating back to the 1800s.