Latest news

While the Library is not able to open due to the lockdown, we are pleased to say that we are able to continue offering our Click & Collect service.

You can search books via our online catalogue, reserve them online, and collect them from the Cathedral Welcome Centre during Cathedral opening hours. Please head to our Click & Collect webpage for more information, including helpsheets on how to search and reserve. 

If you have books out and do not feel comfortable coming to return them, then you can use our helpsheets below to renew them online, or send our Library team an email asking them to renew them for you. 

Thank you for your continued support. We hope to be able to welcome you all back into the Library soon!

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Welcome to the Cathedral Library

The Cathedral Library is a modern theological lending library.  Members have access to:

• A wide collection including books on theology, biblical studies, spirituality, philosophy, and ethics
• Comprehensive resources on the history of the abbey
• Language resources for reading Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Latin and Old English
• A quiet space to read, write or research
• A Click & Collect service which allows members to reserve books online for collection. 

More information on Click & Collect

Search our catalogue 

Please click here to access our online catalogue, which includes searchable digitised images from our archives.

Search our Catalogue

Helpsheets

We have prepared some handy helpsheets which take you through how to search for, reserve and renew books, as well as information for those needing to undertake research online. All of them start with the instruction to log in to the main catalogue page, which you can do using the button above.   

Search for a book        Reserve a book online       Renew a book     

Online Research Resources

Become a member

We charge an annual membership fee to help us keep the library running. You do not need to be a member to use the library, only to borrow books. Fees are as follows: 

General Readers: £20 per year

Cathedral Volunteers and Students from other institutions: £10 per year

Cathedral Guides, Library/Archive Team, SACT Students: free

We are currently offering 15 months' membership instead of 12 for our yearly membership to reflect the fact that we had to close our services for 3 months during the pandemic.  

You can send us a cheque (payable to St Albans Cathedral Learning), or sign up using a standing order form. If setting up a new standing order form this year, please ensure that you enter a start date of 3 months in the future to ensure that you get your 3 months extra free membership. Please email us to let us know when this has been set up. 

General Readers: SO         Cathedral Volunteers/Students: SO

Contact the library

You can email our fantastic team of library volunteers, or call 01727 890222.

Photo: Craig Sheppheard