University of Manchester Library

The University of Manchester Library stands on the Oxford Road campus in the city’s south side, with its main entrance on Burlington Street. The largest part of the system is the main building, whose oldest wing dates from 1936 and was later enlarged in 1953–56 and 1978. Ten other sites are spread across the university, while the John Rylands Library on Deansgate and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Centre inside Manchester Central Library add specialist collections. It is one of only five National Research Libraries in England and the only one in the north. The collections include the largest non-legal-deposit academic stock in the UK and the biggest set of electronic resources of any British library. The library also holds the Guardian Archives, the Manchester Collection of local medical history, and the Christian Brethren Archive. A team led by the university librarian and director supports research across every subject taught at Manchester. Visitors find the main building’s east wing with its 1936 lecture hall and reading rooms, the 1950s south and west wings, and the 1978 Muriel Stott Hall. Inside are exhibition spaces, special-collections rooms, and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons, a fully digital study area. The Christie Building once housed the science library, and the medical school kept its own collection until 1981. The ground floor was refurbished in 2009–10, leaving the original Arts Library entrance and catalogue hall intact.