SCONUL is the professional association for academic and research libraries in the UK and Ireland. Our members are research-intensive institutions such as Trinity College, Dublin and University College London, and specialist higher education providers like Scotland’s Rural College and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Our wonderful national libraries are lynchpins of the SCONUL community which also includes libraries holding important national collections including the Royal Horticultural Society and the Tate Library.

We speak for this diverse membership with a single voice on the strategic issues facing the sector, advocating for the value and importance of libraries in teaching and learning, in the research process; in student success and in delivering our institutions’ innovation and engagement agenda, for example in the drive for equality, diversity and inclusion and on sustainability. 

We are led by our members, driven by their needs and informed by their priorities. Our reach relies on commitment by those at our member organisations who give a great deal of time to formal working groups and through contributions to projects, events and  discussions. The SCONUL community is unstinting in its willingness to share intelligence, strategic insights and experience to meet the community’s collective needs. This is our most valuable asset.