Help with Special Collections catalogues

Getting started

You can discover what is in Special Collections through our catalogues. Books and archives are catalogued in different ways to different standards so you may need to look at more than one kind of catalogue to see all our material. Once you’ve found something of interest in the catalogues listed below, see our services page to find out how you can get access to it.

Discovering our books

All printed books in Special Collections are catalogued on the Library catalogue. This also includes journals and pamphlets.  We include information about provenance (previous owners) and condition so print materials can be understood as unique historical artefacts. You can limit a search on the Library catalogue to Special Collections using the drop-down box.

Library Hub Discover. Our book collections, plus books in libraries in UK universities and special libraries of all kinds.

Discovering our archives

Most of the catalogues for our archives are online in Word and PDF form on the web pages for each collection. Our peace pamphlets are also available in this way.

Some older catalogues are not yet online, but we are working to make them available.  If you want more information about an archive but can't see it online, just contact Special Collections and we will do what we can to help.

The Archives Hub.  Descriptions of archives in UK universities, including most of our archives.

Discovery. Archives at the National Archives and across the UK, including some of ours.