Since its foundation in 1734, Göttingen State and University Library has been collecting books and other materials from and relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Georg August, Duke of Hanover, the founder of Göttingen University, also ruled Great Britain in personal union as King George II. This close connection between the two countries has laid the foundation of one of the largest collections of English books on the continent, as the library established business relationships with booksellers in London and other cities abroad. One of the principal research libraries of the Enlightenment, Göttingen Library acquired a large variety of documents relating to the expansion of the British empire as well as literary texts of the 17th and 18th century. Over the years, the library was able to further extend its important and wide-ranging collection which encompasses historical and contemporary primary sources as well as scholarly publications on English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish history, culture, literature, folklore, politics and geography. The collection features books, journals, maps and mircroforms as well as digitized copies of historical documents.

Among its collection of English manuscripts and incunables are several copies of works by the printer William Caxton (such as the Dicta Philosophorum) who brought the printing press to England.The library’s historical collection has been continually supplemented by items bought at national and international auctions, among them first and rare editions, such as an edition of the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896), published by William Morris's Kelmscott Press and illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, a signed edition of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and a first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses (1922).

After World War II, SUB Göttingen was tasked by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to collect primary sources and scholarly literature pertaining to Great Britain and Ireland as part of its Special Subject Collections Programme. This resulted in a substantial collection of contemporary German and international research literature comprised of both books and journals. The collection of primary literature contains editions of historical sources (both in print and on microform) as well as editions of literary texts representative of a large variety of genres: Volumes of contemporary poetry, contemporary novels, crime fiction, anthologies of short stories, regional and non-fiction writing as well as literary magazines.

Find out more about how to browse our collections on our Search Tips page!

The Library of Anglo-American Culture has currently licensed one large digital archive of British  newspapers.

The Historical Newspapers and Periodicals Archive Online contains digital archives of the following three newspapers:

• The Guardian (1821-2003)
• The Observer (1791-2003)
• New Statesman and Nation (1913 - 2000)

Readers affiliated to a German department of English or American Studies can register for access free of charge via the platform of historicum.net (FID Geschichtswissenschaft). During the registration process, please select your home institution from the dropdown menu.

Berndt, Michael, and Reimer Eck, eds. Englische Kinder- und Jugendbücher: Eine Ausstellung des British Council und der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Januar 1977. Göttingen, 1977. Kleinere Ausstellungsführer / Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen 1.

Eck, Reimer. “Englische Inkunabeln in der Göttinger Bibliothek.” 'Eine Welt allein ist nicht genug': Großbritannien, Hannover und Göttingen 1714-1837. Ed. Elmar Mittler and Silke Glitsch. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2005. 381–92. Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 31.[read it online]

Eck, Reimer. “Königliche und andere schön verzierte englische Bucheinbände in der Göttinger Bibliothek: Eine Auswahl und zugleich etwas englische Geschichte.” 'Eine Welt allein ist nicht genug': Großbritannien, Hannover und Göttingen 1714-1837. Ed. Elmar Mittler and Silke Glitsch. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2005. 358–80. Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 31.[read it online]

Eck, Reimer. “Der Mainzer Psalter aus Windsor Castle.” 'Eine Welt allein ist nicht genug': Großbritannien, Hannover und Göttingen 1714-1837. Ed. Elmar Mittler and Silke Glitsch. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2005. 393–400. Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 31.[read it online]

Eck, Reimer. “Originalgenie, Ossian, Münchhausen und Leonore: Literarische Beziehungen zwischen Göttingen und Großbritannien im späteren 18. Jahrhundert.” 'Eine Welt allein ist nicht genug': Großbritannien, Hannover und Göttingen 1714-1837. Ed. Elmar Mittler and Silke Glitsch. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2005. 436–50. Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 31.[read it online]

Fabian, Bernhard. “An Eighteenth-Century Research Collection: English Books at Göttingen University Library.” Library 6.1 (1979): 209–24.

Fabian, Bernhard, ed. A Catalogue of English Books Printed Before 1801 Held by the University Library at Göttingen. Compiled by Graham Jefcoate and Karen Kloth. Hildesheim [et al.]: Olms-Weidmann, 1987- (3 pts., pt. 4 forthcoming).

Jacobs, Deborah A. “Goettingen and the Creat Circle of German Libraries: A Comprehensive Continental Review of 18th-Century English Culture.” Studies in the Novel 22 (1990): 82–87.

Jefcoate, Graham. “Wilhelm Best und der Londoner Buchhandel: Ein deutscher Diplomat im Dienste der Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen im 18. Jahrhundert.” Leipziger Jahrbuch zur Buchgeschichte 6.1 (1996): 199–210.

Kloth, Karen. “Eighteenth-Century English Booksellers' Catalogues in Göttingen: A Supplement.” Factotum. Newsletter of the XVIIIth Century STC 17 (1983): 8–9.

Krettek, Barbara. Celtica, 1592 - 1945. Göttingen, 1976.

Krettek, Barbara, and Erich Quandt. Scotica: 16th - 18th century: Presented at the 1st international conference on Scottish language and literature, Edinburgh, 10.-16. Sept. 1975. Göttingen, 1975.

Mittler, Elmar, and Silke Glitsch, eds. 'Eine Welt allein ist nicht genug': Großbritannien, Hannover und Göttingen 1714-1837. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2005. Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 31.[read it online]

Müllenbrock, Heinz-Joachim, Theodor Wolpers, and Reimer Eck, eds. Englische Literatur in der Göttinger Universitätsbibliothek des 18. Jahrhunderts: Ausstellung der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988. Arbeiten aus der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen 14b.

Snyder, Alice D. “Books Borrowed by Coleridge from the Library of the University of Göttingen, 1799.” Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to Research in Medieval and Modern Literature 25.3 (1928): 377–80.

Wolpers, Theodor. “Literaturvermittlung zwischen Göttingen und England im 18. Jahrhundert.” 'Eine Welt allein ist nicht genug': Großbritannien, Hannover und Göttingen 1714-1837. Ed. Elmar Mittler and Silke Glitsch. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2005. 401–35. Göttinger Bibliotheksschriften 31. [read it online]

Woudenberg, Maximiliaan van. “Coleridge's Literary Studies at Göttingen in 1799: Reconsidering the Library Borrowings from the University of Göttingen.” Coleridge Bulletin: The Journal of the Friends of Coleridge 21.Spring (2003): 66–80.

Woudenberg, Maximiliaan van. “A Note on Kathleen Coburn's Citation of Schunke's Unpublished Dissertation 'S. T. Coleridge and Göttingen'.” Notes and Queries 51.2 (2004): 136–38.

Woudenberg, Maximiliaan van. “Coleridge's Göttingen Reading Notes: The Intertextual Research of the Projected Life of Lessing in 1799.” Variants: The Journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship 2-3 (2004): 245–70.

Woudenberg, Maximiliaan van. “Where Did Coleridge Live in Göttingen?” ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews 26.1 (2013): 31–35.

Woudenberg, Maximiliaan van. “The Göttingen Library Borrowings of English Matriculants, 1798-1801.” The Library 17.3 (2016): 239–86.

See also the general list of publications on SUB Göttingen and its collections which are relevant to the subjects covered by the Library AAC!