Lund University University Archives and Special Collections

History and Founding

Lund University was founded in 1666, and its library was established in 1668, making it one of Sweden's oldest and largest research libraries. Since 1698, the university library has received legal deposit copies of all publications printed in Sweden, a mandate it shares today with only five other Swedish libraries. The University Archives (Universitetsarkivet) holds official archival records dating from the university's foundation in 1666 to the present day. The Folk Life Archives (Folklivsarkivet), Sweden's oldest archive of folk traditions, is also part of the university's archival complex, with its current mission formally endorsed by the university in 2020.

Collections and Holdings

Lund University Library is one of Sweden's largest and oldest research libraries, with special collections spanning more than two thousand years. The library holds more than four kilometers of shelving dedicated to manuscripts and archive documents, thousands of rare printed books from the mid-fifteenth to the end of the eighteenth century, and image collections containing more than one million photographs and graphic documents. More than two hundred scientific databases, 400,000 e-books, and 29,000 scholarly e-journals are accessible to university staff and students. The library's main building at Helgonabacken, designed by architect Alfred Hellerström and opened in 1907, was named Sweden's most beautiful building in 2019. The Folk Life Archives hold traditional materials from across Sweden, with a particular emphasis on the Skåne region, and include the Skåne Music Collection documenting folk music traditions.

Notable Collections

The Digital Collections program has digitized many important historical materials, including photographs of Lund from approximately 1890–1950, popular single-sheet prints from around 1750–1890, rare book prints from 1500–1900, the collected works of journalist and editor Herbert Tingsten, and historical documents from the 16th to the 19th century. The de la Gardie Archive engravings and the Ravensbrück archive are among the special collections accessible to researchers.

Access and Usage

The University Archives are open to the public. The library provides on-site access to its special collections by prior request, as materials must be requested in advance. The library's digitized collections are freely available online. The Folk Life Archives are accessible to researchers and the public for both academic and cultural heritage purposes.