John Rylands University Library

John Rylands University Library (The)
The Main Library, The John Rylands University Library, from Lime Grove
Country	England
Type	Academic library
Established	1851
Location	Oxford Road (near), Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester
Branches	six
Collection
Items collected	books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, maps, prints, drawings and manuscripts
Size	over 4 million items
Access and use
Population served	Greater Manchester and worldwide
Members	University of Manchester (and some other groups on application)
Other information
Budget	subject to review
Director	Janet Wilkinson (Ms.)
Staff	ca. 100+
Website	http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk]
Phone number	(+44)(0)161 275 3751

The John Rylands University Library (The JRUL) is the University of Manchester's library and information service. It was formed in July 1972 from the merger of the library of the Victoria University of Manchester with the John Rylands Library. On 1 October 2004 it joined the library of the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) on the merger of the two universities.

The main library is on the Oxford Road Campus of the University in Chorlton on Medlock: the postal address is Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PP, UK, though the library entrance is at Burlington Street. The forms of the library's official name have varied slightly over the period of its existence: once as "John Rylands University Library of Manchester". The Library is a National Research Library (an award of the Higher Education Funding Council for England): the only one in the north of England.

Contents

It is the largest non-legal deposit academic library in the United Kingdom, has the largest collection of electronic resources of any library in the UK and supports all subject areas taught by the University. The JRUL provides its members with a plethora of services and resources, including an extensive range of electronic resources. A limited range of services is also provided for members of the public, schools and commercial companies.

Library buildings

The main building is located at Burlington Street, west of Oxford Road: (building no. 55 on the University's Campus Guide): the oldest part of this is the east wing of 1936: it was extended by south and west wings in 1953-56 and by the Muriel Stott hall in 1978. Until 1965 it was known as the Arts Library as the Christie Building contained the scientific section of the library and the Medical Library was also in a separate building until 1981. The larger part to the north opened in 1981 (architects: Dane, Scherrer & Hicks): it had been designed in 1972 as the first instalment of a larger building. The John Rylands University Library has a number of satellite libraries in other University buildings, including the Eddie Davies Library (Manchester Business School) and the Joule Library (Sackville Street Building).^{[citation needed]}

Notable collections housed in the Main Library are the Guardian Archives, the Manchester Collection (on local medical history), maps and plans, and the Christian Brethren Archive. Also within the Main Library are the offices of the Manchester Medical Society which has had accommodation within the University since 1874.

Partial Main Library refurbishment

In summer 2009 to January 2010 part of the ground floor of the Main Library was refurbished, with further changes elsewhere in the organization of the library services.

History

Prehistory

The library includes collections which had already been brought together before Owens College was opened on 12 March 1851. These are the library of the Manchester Medical Society, established in 1834; the library of the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, established in 1824 (very few items remain in the present collections); the library of the Manchester Infirmary, (from the 1750s to the late 19th century); and the Radford Library from St Mary's Hospital, Manchester (early obstetrical and gynaecological literature collected by the surgeon Thomas Radford). (The two latter collections were donated to the Medical Library in 1917 and 1927 respectively.)

1851–1936

The first home of the Medical School in Coupland Street, Chorlton on Medlock (as seen in 1908 looking west) The medical library was accommodated here, 1874-1981

Owens College was founded in 1851 and the college library began with donations from James Heywood (1,200 volumes) and Dr William Charles Henry in the first year. The first large addition to stock was the library of James Prince Lee, bishop of Manchester, first 7,000 volumes in 1869 and then a further instalment. The collection was rich in theology, church history and fine art. Over the next thirty years many significant additions were made such as the substantial personal libraries of E. A. Freeman (6,000 volumes) and Robert Angus Smith (4,000 volumes). In 1904 the Owens College Library became the Manchester University Library on the merger of the college with the Victoria University of Manchester. The library was located in three different positions during the early years: Cobden's House, Quay Street; the John Owens Building, 1873–1898; the Christie Building from autumn 1898. From 1903 the Librarian (Charles Leigh) improved the administration of the library by introducing the Dewey Decimal Classification and higher cataloguing standards. On the death of Richard Copley Christie the library received his fine personal library of over 8,000 volumes including many rare books from the Renaissance period. In 1936 the library was divided into two parts on the opening of the new Arts Library, Lime Grove. Thereafter the Christie Building would contain only scientific and technical literature. The Medical School of the University had its own library which had been founded in 1834 as the library of the Manchester Medical Society. This was accommodated in Owens College once the Medical School was established there in 1874 and on its centenary in 1934 was enriched by the Manchester Collection of Dr E. Bosdin Leech relating to the medical history of the Manchester district. From 1919 a Deaf Education collection was established: this was significantly enlarged by Abraham Farrar's bequest.

1936–2007

Moses Tyson

For the first thirty years of this period the librarian was Dr Moses Tyson (1897–1969) who has previously been keeper of western manuscripts at the John Rylands Library. He was an historian and the first Librarian to be a member of the University Senate. The building of a new Arts Library meant that the stock had to be divided into two groups of subjects: arts and social sciences, and science and technology. The latter subjects remained in the original Christie Library though in areas of overlap there was some duplicating of entries in the library catalogues to assist the readers. By the early 1950s the stock had grown to such a size that the arts library building needed to be extended. This had been foreseen by the architects and once funds were available the building of two new wings in a similar style was undertaken between 1953 and 1957 (however the pattern of reading and stack rooms in the three wings is not the same). Features such as an exhibition hall and a department of special collections were included in the design together with improvements in the administrative accommodation. New departments had been established in the university by this time and these meant that the library extended its coverage in areas such as American studies, history of art, music and Near Eastern studies.

Frederick Ratcliffe to William Simpson

After Dr Tyson's retirement in 1965 Dr F. W. Ratcliffe was appointed librarian and a period of further expansion followed which included an ambitious acquisitions policy, the beginnings of library computerisation and better liaison with the academic departments. He had a major role, with Sir William Mansfield Cooper, the vice-chancellor, in the successful merger of the John Rylands Library with the Manchester University Library on 19 July 1972. An additional extension was planned about this time though not built until eight years later as funding was not then available. The extension was planned as a rectangular block, in two unequal parts (the second part has never been built). Before the extension could be built congestion in the library building had to be alleviated by moving some stock to other locations on the campus. The benefaction of Miss Muriel Stott, an honorary governor of the John Rylands Library, enabled the building of a tent-like octagonal hall next to the library, the Muriel Stott Conference Centre (on the building of the extension this was enclosed by the rest of the library). The design of the extension was modified when actually implemented in 1979 so that a link section united it with the three-wing existing library building. This new extension opened in the autumn term of 1981 and at the same time the medical and science (Christie) libraries were vacated so that a more coherent organization of stock became possible. By the time this building opened Dr Ratcliffe had left to be the University Librarian at Cambridge. He was succeeded in 1981 by Dr Michael Pegg, formerly Librarian of the University of Birmingham, who remained until he resigned on grounds of ill health in 1991. He was followed by Christopher J. Hunt, formerly Social Sciences sub-librarian and later university librarian of James Cook University, Townsville and of Latrobe University, both in Australia and, after returning to the UK, librarian of the British Library of Political and Economic Science, London. On Mr Hunt's retirement the new librarian was the librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, William G. Simpson, who had also previously been Acting Deputy Librarian of JRULM until 1985 and subsequently university librarian of the Universities of London and Surrey. Mr Simpson remained until his retirement in December 2007. During the period 2004-7 a major refurbishment of the historic John Rylands Library in the centre of Manchester, together with the construction of an acclaimed new visitor centre, was completed, whilst the Library as a whole merged with the libraries of UMIST and the Manchester Business School to create the John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester.

Former Librarians

Notable librarians of the library before 1972 were Charles W. E. Leigh (1903–1935), Moses Tyson (1935–1965) and Frederick William Ratcliffe (formerly assistant librarian, librarian 1965–1980) whose years of service amount to a total of 78 years. George Wilson was librarian of the Medical Library for over 50 years.

See also

• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 73

Further reading

• Pullan, Brian & Abendstern, Michele (2000) A History of the University of Manchester, 1951-73. Manchester University Press ISBN 0-7190-5670-5 Extract about Moses Tyson
• Ratcliffe, F. W. (2007) Books, Books, Just Miles and Miles of Books: across the library counter, 1950–2000. Cambridge: F. W. Ratcliffe (unpublished autobiography held at Cambridge University Library)
• Rigg, J. Anthony (1968) "A comparative history of the libraries of Manchester and Liverpool Universities up to 1903", in: Saunders, W. L., ed. University and Research Library Studies: some contributions from the University of Sheffield Post-graduate School of Librarianship and Information Science. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1968
• Taylor, Frank (1982) The John Rylands University Library of Manchester. [28] p. Manchester: John Rylands University Library of Manchester (compiled after the opening of the 1981 extension to the Main Library)
• Tyson, Moses (1937) The Manchester University Library. Manchester: U. P. (published on the occasion of the opening of the Arts Library, which was in use from 1936: architects Thomas Worthington & Sons)

External links

• The University of Manchester
• The John Rylands University Library
• The John Rylands University Library — Special Collections Division