As one of Japan’s leading research libraries, the Hokkaido University libraries hold approximately 3.76 million books and journals, including a unique collection of materials focused on the northern region. To raise the standard of academic communication, we continue to increase our electronic collection and develop our institutional repository. With a seating capacity of approximately 1,500, our libraries continue to play a vital role as places of learning.

Library Hours

Note: Library hours vary depending on the time of year. Please check the library’s website for further information.

(FY2026)

Name of Rooms	Monday–Friday	Weekends & Holidays
Open-stack reading rooms	8:00–22:00	9:00–19:00
Stack rooms	9:00–20:00	9:00–18:30
Group study rooms (Central Library)	8:30–21:30	9:00–18:30
Individual study booth (Central Library)	8:30–22:00	9:00–19:00
Group study rooms (North Library)	8:00–21:30	9:00–18:30
Multimedia room (North Library)	8:00–21:30	9:00–19:00

Collection by Branch

Branch	Japanese Books	Foreign Books	Total Books	Journals
Central Library	1,042,711	888,095	1,930,806	36,314
North Library	274,447	118,527	392,974	1,609
Subtotal	1,317,158	1,006,622	2,323,780	37,923

Branch	Japanese Books	Foreign Books	Total Books	Journals
Institute for Integrated Innovations	4	3	7	4
Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education	2,583	647	3,230	151
Institute for International Collaboration	1	0	1	2
Institute for the Advancement of Graduate Education	117	11	128	1
Letters	107,177	45,023	152,200	2,659
Law	7,703	1,715	9,418	880
Information Science and Technology	13,303	16,647	29,950	835
Fisheries Sciences	72,768	54,029	126,797	5,424
Environmental Science/Environmental Earth Science	5,421	4,794	10,215	347
Science	48,572	168,754	217,326	4,215
Pharmaceutical Sciences/Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacy	8,285	3,739	12,024	297
Agriculture	127,921	97,165	225,086	8,798
Life Science/Advanced Life Science	249	180	429	23
Education	14,097	2,867	16,964	799
International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies/Media and Communication	868	1,437	2,305	93
Health Sciences	28,911	3,519	32,430	935
Engineering	106,783	99,386	206,169	5,306
Economics and Business	6,650	2,368	9,018	1,199
Medicine	53,644	93,623	147,267	5,690
Dental Medicine	23,187	16,018	39,205	1,080
Veterinary Medicine	8,683	23,170	31,853	1,337
Public Policy	0	0	0	3
Institute of Low Temperature Science	10,582	24,398	34,980	1,785
Research Institute for Electronic Science	471	263	734	26
Institute for Genetic Medicine	46	31	77	25
Institute for Catalysis	4,720	16,935	21,655	468
Slavic-Eurasian Research Center	3,618	77,858	81,476	2,169
Information Initiative Center	88	1	89	57
Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere	6,570	1,855	8,425	84
Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies	5,029	695	5,724	137
Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience	22	18	40	1
Hokkaido University Museum	11,156	3,581	14,737	1,281
Hokkaido University Archives	3,725	83	3,808	320
Office for Integrated Technical Core Hub	15	0	15	0
Subtotal	682,969	760,813	1,443,782	46,431
GRAND TOTAL	2,000,127	1,767,435	3,767,562	84,354

Data as of March 31, 2026

Library Use Information

(FY2025)

Category	Central Library	North Library
Visits	273,627	493,311
Borrowers	81,745	70,273
Total circulation	117,639	102,084
Interlibrary loan document delivery: requests to others	2,109	128
Interlibrary loan document delivery: requests from others	1,285	14
Interlibrary loan: requests to others	667	59
Interlibrary loan: requests from others	873	106
Reading desks/seats	711	785