Library Homepage

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Welcome to the University Library

Check opening times, take a virtual tour, and explore essential services.

Google's hidden databases

Google has been hiding things from you. Good things, no less! Whether you want to find public information about the political constitutions of the world brought together or look for images that share a colour, shape or vague similarity to an image or art style you have found, Google's hidden databases are a cornucopia of forgotten knowledge.

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Black woman sat reading from her mobile phone

Ebook Central releases its own ebook reader app

From 23 July, our biggest ebook platform, Ebook Central, will begin using its own app for reading downloaded ebooks. The way you read ebooks online through the platform won’t change, but if you choose to download a copy to read when you are without access to the internet, you will need to use the Ebook Central Reader app.

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Woman stretching - From Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/photo/female-office-worker-stretching-on-top-of-her-desk-9063398/

Stretch for success

It has been said that "Sitting is the new smoking" because it has been associated with a host of long-term health problems. Unlike smoking, authorities have been telling you to sit still all your life, even when you wanted naturally to wriggle and move when you were a small child in school, learning the habits that were expected of you in the modern workplace. Happily, there are ways to wake the body and stimulate the circulation without even getting up.

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Soviet era posters from the Rare Books Collection

A dissertation less ordinary - introducing the Library's special collections

The Library's special collections might be our best kept secrets. Discover the history of the University, uncover our Map Library with its comprehensive currentand historical digital map collections, the Rare Books collection showcasing everything from unusual design and typography to an architectural collection, botanical and art prints, and the collections of translated and illustrated global children's books in our Near and Far World Books @ UoP collection.

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AI-generated landscape. Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LandscapeByDesignermadsen-dfbuq3c.png

Artificial art and copyright design

AI is capable of copying the style of any artist whose work it has studied, threatening the livelihoods of creatives everywhere. From images to novellas, the distinctive styles that might have taken half a lifetime to craft can now be emulated in seconds based on the study of works used without their creators' permission. Experts agree such use of AI often breaches copyright law, but until the courts rule, it remains unclear who might be liable, and for what.

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