The university library has a valuable old collection. Its importance lies in the concentration of the geoscientific and mining heritage of monographs, journals, manuscripts, mining specimens (exploration, mine and weather reports) and crack works.

The old scientific collection in its current form represents a comparatively small but typical library between the Enlightenment and Classical periods.

Its holdings, which largely originate from Abraham Gottlob Werner's private library, reflect the history of science from the beginning of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century.

As an independent department of the University Library, the Scientific Old Collection was founded in 1971 under the then curator Dr Peter Schmidt.