LIBRARY

University Library

Welcome to KU Library

Our library is the intellectual commons of university where our community discovers and workings together in physical and virtual spaces. It connects and meets the curriculum, research, and other information needs of its faculties and departments.

Library Services

The KU Library is a fully operational academic department with a team of highly skilled staff. The library is divided into three main sections: the Main Library, the Book Bank, and the ICT Laboratories. It serves as a place for self-education and self-tutoring, encouraging students to be inquisitive, take initiative, and dedicate themselves to promoting their education.

As an integral part of academic life at the university, the KU Library provides a diverse range of both print and digital resources to meet the ever-evolving needs of its users. With its Online Access Public Catalogue [OPAC], users can easily identify, find, and locate the materials they need.

Main Library

The KU main library is home to a vast collection of reference materials, textbooks, and periodical volumes that are relevant to students’ needs. Additionally, the library provides access to an extensive supply of electronic resources, which have become an essential tool for students and other users to access for their studies and learning. These resources are easily searchable on the internet through a variety of free and subscribed databases and programmes that complement printed information. The KU library is licensed through COTUL cooperation to access and use various Databases and Programmes selected annually. Additionally, access and use of variety of e-resources on Medical and allied Sciences is available through registration for WHO databases and Programmes such as; HINARI AGORA, ARDI and OARE. Similarly, Open Access [OA] information is also organized and utilized effectively and sufficiently to improve and modernize the library services.

In this direction an Institutional Repository, [IR] is set up as an e-resources archive for collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual research outputs. The objective of setting up IR is to provide OA to research outputs through self-archiving unpublished literature such as theses, working papers and reports. The IR functions include showcasing institution’s scholarly publications and a set of services, which the University ought to offer to its community.

Book Bank

This is an allied section for the Main Library where specific and key textbooks for various courses offered in the University are kept. The Book Bank unit is one of the landmark establishments of the University’s founder, the late Prof. Hubert C.M. Kairuki, who advocated that a medical and related science student at this University should have at least one textbook for the main courses of study in a semester. The aim is to improve the students’ mastery and performance in such courses of study. Therefore, the unit is equipped with core textbooks to cater for main courses conducted. A minimal subscription fee is charged from students on an annual basis to facilitate replenishing of worn-out textbooks. Once students borrow books from the book-bank, they can stay with them for the entire semester. At the end of each semester, students are required to return the books to the book bank. Students who fail to return the books will not be allowed to register in the following semester.