A large and expanding collection covering Co. Durham (with particular emphasis on Durham city, university and cathedral) and, in less depth, Northumberland, and the historic counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and the North Riding of Yorkshire. The collection contains over 6,000 books and pamphlets and 3,000 serial volumes. It includes good holdings of early local directories, pollbooks and election ephemera (largely 18th-19th century), playbills, locally printed slip songs, and other single sheet items. There are also extensive holdings of 18th century Newcastle upon Tyne newspapers and 19th-early 20th century Durham newspapers, partly original, partly on microfilm. The Library's collections of archives and manuscripts, photographs, and topographical and portrait prints all also contain much material relating to the local area. These collections, and the collection of coins from the Durham mint, are separately described.
The Local Collection web pages can be found at http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/heritage/local/.