The Mahatma Gandhi University Library is situated on the University’s main campus at Athirampuzha, 13 km away from Kottayam town, on the top of the Priyadarshini hills. The University Library was started in 1989 under the supervision of a Special Officer, Prof. K A Isaac, former University Librarian and Prof. & Head, Dept of Library & Information Science, University of Kerala. The Library, from its infancy, has taken keen initiatives and attention to develop in modern lines, including the application of ICT in its activities and services. MGU Library and Information System consist of the University Central Library and the libraries of 21 schools/ departments.
The Library is a member of the INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmedabad (INFormation and LIBrary NETwork), an Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission. INFLIBNET Centre support has improved the quality and relevance of University Information Services. The University Library is a fully automated system using the Open Source Software Koha for in-house Management. It is also an Institutional member of the DELNET (Developing Library Network, New Delhi). As a member of these networks, the library provides access to the resources of other major libraries in the nation to its users.
The Mahatma Gandhi University was one of the first fifty Universities under the UGC-Infonet Programme. Through One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiated by Government of India, Central sector Scheme of Ministry of Education (MoE) provides access to 13000+ journals from 30 Publishers from January 2025 onwards. The INFLIBNET Centre, An IUC of UGC, Gandhinagar is entrusted an Implementing Agency for the Scheme. The library also has back volumes of the journals published by major publishers like Sage Online, Wiley International, Cambridge online and Springer online.
The Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) won the State IT award in 2009 in the e-learning category for its University Online Theses Digital Library. With the launching of the Mahatma Gandhi University Online Theses Digital Library, it has become the first Indian university to adopt open access to its doctoral research theses to academics worldwide through www.mgutheses.in. The university library also bagged the Library Technology Conclave (LTC) 2019 Koha Library Award for the best Koha implementation at the national level.
The University Library has a collection of 1,34,313 books, 8076 e-books, 3852 theses and 9356 bound volumes of journals.