- Discover
- E-journals
- E-books
- Clinical Databases
- Anatomy Resources
- Specialty Updates
- Heritage Collections
Welcome to the Library:
Search full text across our current surgical collections
- To make use of saved searches and online resource bookmarks, please Log in above.
- Use the search box on the Discovery tab to search across all our modern collections; the other tabs make it easier to search for specific online titles or use other search indexes.
- Search for specific publications in the E-journals and E-books tabs, by using the format: (publication title).
- Use the Advanced Search option below the Search button to select specific restrictions on your search, or use the Facets to the left of the initial results page to refine your results by source, date or other criteria.
- Detailed information on using this site can be found by selecting the Help option in the menu.
Many of our links will automatically log you into the destination website, asking you to sign in at the College website if you have not already done so. If you arrive by a different route, you will need to use their institutional login; you can find guides as to how to do this for the different providers on our help pages.
Library E-journals:
Search our e-journal collection
Access to the latest advances in clinical knowledge
Elsevier's clinical insight engine provides access to over 600 e-journals, 1000 e-books, 17,000 videos and 2 million images.
Find high quality clinical research evidence
Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
The world’s most trusted medical research platform
Ovid's database platform allows searching across MEDLINE, Embase and HMIC, with direct links to RCS England Library subscriptions where available.
From the US National Library of Medicine
PubMed® comprises more than 34 million citations for biomedical literature. Use this button to display links to RCS England Library subscriptions where available.
The links above should give you access automatically, asking you to sign in at the College website if you have not already done so.
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Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy
The popular Video Atlas comprises a series of individual videos demonstrating the structure and linkages of parts of the human anatomy, using real human bodies. Previously available as a series of DVDs, it has now been made available online.
The link above should log you in automatically, asking you to sign in at the College website if you have not already done so. If you arrive by a different route, click
Open Athens
under the login form at Acland’s. Then, search for and selectRoyal College of Surgeons of England
from the institution list.Illustrated guide to accessing Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy
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Visible Body Suite
Visible Body is a comprehensive 3D visualisation and learning tool, allowing you to explore the systems of the human body. It includes over 5,000 interactive, medically accurate, male and female anatomical structures, covering systemic and regional anatomy.
On your first access, use this link to visit VB Suite, signing into the College website if you have not already done so. Register there, then use the email address and password you just registered to login directly to VB Suite (without needing to log in to the RCS England website). You will need to renew your access using the first link above after 150 days.
Visible Body is also available as an app for Apple and Android mobile devices. Once you have registered and logged-in to the website, you will find links to the relevant pages in the app stores, so you can download the correct version. Use your VB Suite registered login to access the app.
Specialty Updates:
Subscribe to our specialty current awareness bulletins
To subscribe to the Specialty Updates, you will need:
- To be an active member of the College
- Your login details for the College website
If you are not yet a member of RCS England, join us today to develop your knowledge and skills and get the support you need for your career.
To subscribe to the Specialty Updates, follow these simple steps, or watch the instructional video below:
- Sign in to the RCS England website and click on your name on the top right.
- In the menu under My Account, click Account Preferences.
- Under Surgical Specialties, click “select options” and highlight the relevant specialties for you.
- Under Publications highlight Specialty Updates.
- Click “Update email preferences”.
Heritage Collections:
Search the Library's Special Collections and digital exhibitions, and the collections of the Archives and Museums
Go straight to:
- Heritage Collections, our unified heritage catalogue
- SurgiCat, the Archives and Museums catalogue
- Plarr's Lives of the Fellows, the biographies of the Fellows of the College.
- Voices of Surgery, surgical oral histories.
- The Library's Digital Exhibitions, showcasing highlights of the collections.
Popular Titles
Library News
- New Exhibition: Rootless PhantomApril 1, 2026
This exhibition examines medieval and early modern medical responses to the Black Death, highlighting how practitioners like Guy de Chauliac combined observation, humoral theory, and botanical knowledge to treat and prevent the plague, thereby transforming European medicine and public health practices through detailed symptom recording and evolving treatment manuals. The items highlighted include texts consulted to inform new research by HLCE grant holder Thomas Banbury into this historic landscape and the full audio recording of the lecture given as a result of it.
- Improved journal accessSeptember 16, 2025
We have been working, in response to members' feedback, to improve and simplify access to online resources such as e-journals and the anatomy websites. In September 2025, with the launch of the College database project, we reached a major milestone, and access should now be much easier.
Links to resources on the Surgical Library website and in some other places will now ask you to login at the College website if you have not already done so. They will then give you access to the resource automatically. If you find the journal by another route, you will now be able to use the institutional login option there to sign in at the College website and gain access.
As always, if you run into problems, please contact us at library.athens@rcseng.ac.uk so that we can assist you.
- Discover the Library on InstagramFebruary 7, 2024
Have you followed the Library and Archives on Instagram? We post treasures, items used for research, links to fully digitised items, events, and displays. Plus other library news as it happens. We think there's something for everyone in our amazing heritage collections. https://www.instagram.com/rcsenglandlibrary/
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