Library History

Durham University Library was established in January 1833 on the Palace Green site with a collection of 160 volumes donated by William Van Mildert. Today the Library's collections amount to around 1.625 million printed items, major collections of manuscripts and archives, and a wide and rapidly-increasing range of online and electronic resources, including over 17,500 e-journals, more than 313,000 e-books, and many major databases.

Highlights in the University Library's history include:

• 1832: The first University Librarian, the Revd Patrick George, appointed
• 1854: Dr Routh's collection bequeathed to the University Library
• 1856: Bishop Maltby's collection donated to the Library
• 1859: Dr Winterbottom's collection bequeathed to the Library
• 1937: Cosin's Library collection becomes part of the University's trusteeship
• 1950: Oriental Library established
• 1957: Sudan Archive established
• 1958: Bamburgh Library collection deposited with the University Library
• 1965: Science Library established
• 1979: Education Library incorporated within the University Library
• 1983: Science Library extended to become the Main Library
• 1983: Online circulation system introduced
• 1987: Basil Bunting Poetry Archive acquired by the Library
• 1990: Online cataloguing introduced
• 1992: A campus library is established at Stockton-on-Tees
• 1993: Middle East Documentation Unit is transferred to the University Library
• 1995: European Documentation Centre granted 'comprehensive' status
• 1996: The University Library joins CURL, the Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles - now RLUK (Research Libraries UK)
• 2001: Automated borrowing machine for customers introduced, at the Queen's Campus Library
• 2005: Library-wide reclassification initiated
• 2005: Cosin's Library and the Sudan Archive are 'designated' by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
• 2007: Expansion to automated borrowing services for customers across the University Library
• 2010: Cosin's Library copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, stolen in 1998, returned to the University
• 2011: Law and Music collections are transferred to the Main Library from Palace Green Library, which is refocused solely to special collections and galleries
• 2012: A major extension to the Main Library is completed with the creation of a new East Wing, and the Main Library is renamed the Bill Bryson Library

A full guide to the History of Durham University Library and to the Library's Recent History is also available.

• library_history_early.pdf (last modified: 21 September 2012)
• library_history_recent.pdf (last modified: 21 September 2012)