St Anne’s is the home of choice for the brightest and most ambitious students, including those from underrepresented groups.
St Anne’s is one of Oxford’s largest colleges, with over 800 students. Our Fellows’ world leading research ranges across the arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and physical, life and medical sciences.
Our diverse, inclusive community extends around the globe through our alumnae, who build on their experiences here to change the world for the better.
Situated within 5 acres of tranquil leafy grounds, St Anne’s enjoys a unique atmosphere in which to hold any conference, dinner or special event.
With a modern collection of over 110,000 items the Library is primarily a working collection but includes a number of older and rarer books acquired by gifts and bequests.
We also welcome suggestions for new material to purchase.
Our modern collection of around 100,000 books covers every subject taught in college. We aim to buy all of the core texts on your reading lists and are always pleased to take suggestions.
Thanks in part to the OCCT, which is based at St Anne’s, we have a large and growing collection of fiction in translation.
Other strengths include Chinese, Education, Linguistics, Medicine and modern fiction.
We also have a range of current journals, DVDs and a Welfare collection of self-help books to support the ‘Be Well, Do Well’ mission at St Anne’s.
For a taste of our current purchasing habits, check out some of our virtual book displays filled with recent titles on a variety of themes.
As a former women's college, St Anne's owes the bulk of its special collection material to generous donations accumulated over the years from alumnae and friends of the college.
Among these collections are 10 incunabula and over 300 volumes listed in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). Particular highlights include our 15th Century Book of Hours (pictured), and a 19th century Thai Prayer Manuscript.
The cataloguing of our special collections material is ongoing. You can search the material that has already been catalogued on SOLO, Oxford's union catalogue.
To consult items within our special collections, please contact us to arrange a visit.
A collection of 231 volumes bequeathed by Marjorie Reeves (1905-2003), a Founding Fellow of St Anne's whose research focused on, and sparked a revival of interest in, Joachim of Fiore. Also held by the Library are Reeve's notes, correspondence and other papers.
Around 5000 volumes were donated from the library of Canon Claude Jenkins (1877-1959). Broad in scope, the collection has particular strengths in British, European and Ecclesiastical history. For more information on this collection, see our blog posts on Canon Jenkins and the Jenkins Bookplates.
Rosemary Pountney (1937-2016) was a leading scholar on the work of Samuel Beckett. She began performing Beckett’s one woman plays whilst working on her thesis in the 1960s and made many tours worldwide performing and lecturing on Beckett. Much of her collection of 187 volumes on Beckett are annotated with notes and stage directions.
Explore the personal papers of some of our donors along with other material in the St Anne's archive.
Discover more information about our history and collections.