University and State Library Tyrol

The Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol stands on the campus of the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck in the Innrain district. It serves as the central information hub for the university and the wider region. The library holds more than four million printed and digital documents, including historical collections and modern research materials. Among its holdings are nearly 100,000 e-books, 30,000 licensed electronic journals and 70,000 items from its historical archives. It also preserves around 2,400 digitised works and 6,000 open-access publications for public access. As the largest academic library in western Austria, it supports research, teaching and study across the university. The library’s value lies in its dual role as a university service and a regional memory institution. It collects and makes accessible publications from and about the former crown lands of Tyrol, including South Tyrol and Trentino. These holdings, known as Tirolensien, document the cultural identity of the region. Every month the library highlights a Tirolensie in its ‘Seitenweise Tirol’ series. A permanent display in the main reading room showcases 750 Tyrolean writers under the title ‘100 Jahre Tiroler Literatur’. The library also advises on publishing research results and supports open-access publishing. Visitors find seven lending sites spread across Innsbruck’s university campuses. The main building on the Innrain campus houses the central lending services and the historical reading room. Other sites include the Fachbibliothek Recht, the SoWi-Bibliothek and the Bibliothek Haus der Musik. The historical collections, with manuscripts dating back to around 900 AD and 2,122 incunabula, are kept in a dedicated area. The oldest manuscript is the Innicher Evangeliar, and among the treasures is the 1432 Liederhandschrift B by Oswald von Wolkenstein.