Our Story - Chalmers Library

Moving Forward - About Chalmers Library

Education

Information Resources

Scholarly Communication

Learning Environment

The Way We Work

Virtual Learning

Our places

Kuggen

Chalmers Library’s latest initiative opened in december 2016. Kuggen is Sweden’s first learning commons. The colourful cogwheel is situated in a creative environment by the river, next to Lindholmen Science Park.

Main Library

The Main Library, situated at campus Johanneberg, holds vast collections within engineering and natural sciences. This is where students go to find help, study, get a cup of coffee and be inspired.

Architecture Library

Located next to the atrium in the A-building, the Architecture Library has extensive collections within the disciplines of architecture, urban planning and design.

Online Library

Chalmers Online Library holds more than 471 million electronic information resources. These are available anytime and anywhere for students, researchers and employees. The public has access from our three library branches.

Then and Now

In the 1820’s Carl Palmstedt travels through Europe, looking for inspiration to start a school. He returns with a library and other useful equipment. In an attempt to explain the library’s background, two colleagues went to the history collection Chalmeriana to find pieces of a two century large puzzle.

Our Skills

The knowledge at Chalmers Library is evolving at every turn. Within the walls of the library there is a wide spread of competences. We meet the bookbinder and the film editor at our online education team – two professions from two different traditions.

Our Methodology

Sprints, reviews, retrospectives and stand ups according to Scrum. What does it mean? We visited two ongoing projects at Chalmers Library to find out more.

1829 - Foundation of Chalmers and Chalmers Library

On November 5th 1829, following a donation by William Chalmers, Chalmersska Slöjdskolan is founded.

1926 - Chalmers Relocates

The school grows rapidly and the fall of 1926 marks the beginning of Chalmers relocation to the area Gibraltar in Johanneberg. The Library however remains at Storgatan until 1960.

1937 - Chalmers Becomes a University

Chalmers is run as a private institution until 1937, when the institute becomes a state-owned university.

1961 - Opening of the New Main Library

The amount of students at Chalmers continues to grow and in the beginning of the 1960's Chalmers relocates its remaining departments from Storgatan in the city center to Johanneberg. In 1961 a new library building is completed, open to all.

1978 - Open Collection

In 1978 Chalmers Library writes library history. As the first University library in Sweden, they reorganise the collections and parts of the closed book- and magazine collection. Around 800 000 publications are reorganised and the patrons are free to pick out the literature themselves. Other University libraries follow the example.

1994 - A Library at Campus Lindholmen

The amount of students at Chalmers University grows steadily and in the early 1990's Chalmers establish at Lindholmen, previously a shipyard area. The library at Campus Lindholmen opens in 1994.

2009 - A New Library Mission

The president of Chalmers provides the library with a new mission to support utilization, research and education. Following a time of cutbacks the new mission creates a fresh start.

2015 - The Library Today

The Library is moving forward. Developing our business logic and methodology we aspire to deliver modern services appreciated and valued by students, faculty and the public.

2016 - Learning Commons

In December 2016 Chalmers Library launched Sweden's first Learning Commons. Inside the signature building, Kuggen, at campus Lindholmen we've established an area where students, researchers, industry and the public can meet.

2017 - Library Learning Center

In 2016 the construction of a new Library Learning Center will begin. The Learning Center will cater for the departments of Architecture and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

2017 The Research Project

2014 marked the starting point for research.chalmers.se, a database containing information on all grant funded research projects at Chalmers.

2020 The DI Project

Chalmers is changing the allocation of government funds to faculty with the long term goal to improve overall quality and output. Chalmers Library has supported the project by engagement in the area of research evaluation and performance. The new financial model will be fully implemented in 2020.

”We experienced an excellent service during our work with Transport within the eight Areas of Advance. The librarians visited the senior management twice. That was very valuable and appreciated amongst the researchers, who learned how to register a Google Scholar ID and more.”

Maria Grahn, Researcher at the Department of Energy and Environment

"Every day when I left the library, I remember thinking that it’s a castle of knowledge. The ideas of improvement never end. It has always been a cool place when it comes to new technology, architecture and interior design. The large areas and red armchairs remind me of an airport lounge and it makes me feel – Wow, I want to stay here!”

Ingrid Johansson, SFIS Information Specialist of the Year and Lecturer at The Swedish School of Library and Information Science

"The staff have found articles and papers that are really hard to find elsewhere. I’ve always counted on them to get a hold of my wish-list and I’ve never been disappointed. I even express my gratitude in my new book, where I thank the library staff for their ability to trace papers we never thought were available.”

Christian Ekberg, Professor and Author of ”Studies On The Hydrolysis Of Metal Ions”