The History,
At the centre of the University is the library system comprising of the Main Library, which is situated at Makerere University Main Campus. It was constructed in 1959 with a total area of 4,000 square metres and was extended in 1962, 1972 and 2006. The extensions increased the area to 12,000 square metres with a seating capacity of over 2,800. The Main Library currently has eight sections namely: Technical Services, Periodicals/Serials, Reference and Circulation (including the Law collection and IDA/Basic textbook Reserve collection), Africana Section, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Microfilming and Digitisation, Book Bank and Bindery.
College Libraries
There are Nine (9) College Libraries and 1 School Library with a total area of over 2, 000 square metres. Seven (7) of the College Libraries are situated at the Main Campus, namely: College of Business and Management Sciences; College of Computing and Information Sciences; College of Education and External Studies; College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology; College of Humanities and Social Sciences; College of Natural Sciences; and College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Bio-Security. The rest are located away from the Main Campus and serve College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Kabanyoro; and College of Health Sciences at Albert Cook Medical Library at Mulago.
As per the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act (2001), the overall administration of the library is vested in the office of the University Librarian who reports to the Vice-Chancellor through the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs (DVC-AA). The University Librarian is a member of Makerere University Top Management and Senate. Within the Library, the University Librarian and deputies form the Library’s Management team, which works with Heads of Sections and College Librarians to implement University Library policies and programmes, and enforce Library rules and regulations.
The policy making body of the University Library is the Academic Programmes and Library Committee, which is a Senate Committee chaired by the DVC-AA. It is composed of members of Senate representing the Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Library, Students and other relevant stakeholders. The library conducts most of its business through the following Committees: Finance, Appointments, Heads of Sections/College Libraries, Professional Staff, ICTs/Projects, Research and Staff Development, Preservation and Conservation and Staff Welfare.
The library collection consists of over 600,000 monographs with an annual addition of about 2,500 print books and 100 electronic books excluding donations and exchange, over 12,000 titles of bound Serials/ Periodicals and an annual subscription of about 200 titles of print Serials/ Periodicals and over 27,000 titles of electronic journals. There is a Book Bank System that came into existence in 1990. It comprises basic prescribed text books which are kept and accessed from the academic departments. Currently, the Book Bank collection has over 250,000 copies of books.
Although Makerere University Library is an academic unit with programmes, services and functions primarily designed to meet the study, teaching and research information needs of Makerere University community, it also serves as a National Reference Library. In that capacity, it is a Legal Depository for all works published in Uganda including government publications. It is also the depository of the United Nations’ publications and related bodies. These, together with archival materials and dissertations, are housed in the Africana section of the Main Library, while the medical and health related materials are housed at the Medical Library.