Skip to Main Content

Erasmus Students Guide

Information for International Students about our services and how they can search for information

Reading lists

Every year the libraries make an effort to review and update our collection by acquiring the reading recommendations that professors suggest in their teaching guides.

Teaching guides are reviewed annually to acquire new titles or purchase new editions of the books included. You can find these reading lists on our website. You can also send us a purchase request if you are missing a book you need for your classes.

Collections

The UCM Library is the largest university library in Spain and has created its own digital collection.

We offer access to a wide variety of resources, even if you are not physically on campus:

  • Over 3 million books from the 20th and 21st centuries.
  • Over 170,000 e-books and 130,000 electronic monographs to which we have subscribed.
  • Nearly 48,330 titles of printed periodicals and 38,555 electronic journals.
  • 417 online databases.
  • By now more than 56,041 documents are deposited in the Institutional repository: Docta Complutense.
  • Other documents:
  • More than 35,800 audio-visual resources.
  • About 2,300 multimedia resources.
  • About 30,000 maps.

The Historical Library of Marques de Valdecilla stores a rich collection that includes books from the 11th to the 19th centuries:

  • 149 medieval codices.
  • more than 1.000 manuscripts from the 16th to 18th centuries.
  • 740 incunabula.
  • 14,170 printed books from the 16th century.
  • 24.621 books from the 17th century.
  • 56.559 books from the 18th century.
  • 24.047 books from the 19th century.
  • personal archives.
  • and some other materials such as maps, engravings or photographs.

Online collection

Remember! You have at your disposal an online collection with about 400,000 books and more than 36,000 journals. You can consult most of the electronic resources by searching in Cisne (our online search tool), by signing in with your UCM credentials.

Only a few of them will require you to connect to the virtual private network VPN.

Check the conditions for consulting the e-resources subscribed by UCM.

 

How can you find these materials?

The most demanded printed collections are located in open shelves and can be borrowed.

The best way to search and locate something in our collections is to use Cisne search tool. If you have any doubts regarding its use, you can consult the Cisne help guide or ask the library staff.