Several user guides are provided for the library users to assist in locating resources in the library network.
The card catalogue ( a wooden cabinet comprising drawers of catalogue cards) for the books acquired by the library before 2002 is still in use; can be found in the first floor of the Library .It provides bibliographic information on all such books available in the library in three different sequences (sets of cards on which information is printed).
In addition to these three parts of the catalogue, the fourth part is the Subject Index which is a set of cards that carry classification number of each subject. This index guides the user in tracing a book in the subject catalogue by providing the class number for a given subject.
All Sinhala and Tamil materials from the inception of the library are catalogued in English in transliterated form and the catalogue cards are filed in a separate section of the catalogue. Class and Author Catalogues of Sinhala and Tamil materials in the respective languages are also available from 1963 for Sinhala and 1961 for Tamil.
A separate class catalogue for materials kept in the Ceylon Room is being maintained for the convenience of research workers on subjects relating to Sri Lanka. This catalogue is found towards the end of the general class catalogue in the first floor of the Main Library. The author and title entries for the same materials are however, filed along with other entries in the general author / title catalogue.
The Library University of Peradeniya possesses the second largest collection of Palm-leaf manuscripts in Sri Lanka. There is hand written card catalogue for these items, in two separate sequences, one in the order of accession number and the other arranged by subject. This catalogue is found in the ground floor of the Main Library.