IHR Library

• Collection of printed historical sources covering Western Europe and its colonial history. See the Collections page.
• Free membership for staff and postgraduate students of all UK and EU universities. See our Membership page.
• Opens long hours throughout the year. See Location and Opening Times.
• Close to other important historical collections of the Senate House Libraries, including the main Senate House Library and libraries of the Institutes of the School of Advanced Study.

At the time of its foundation in 1921, the IHR library was conceived as “a workshop for historical research” where research students would learn to use historical sources in an integrated seminar space.

Although the teaching of history has changed, the library continues this source-based approach. Its collection consists mainly of printed primary sources, bibliographies, guides to archives, reference works, edited texts and collections of data such as lists of office holders, along with some relevant modern secondary works.

The collection encompasses the historical period from around the middle of the fifth century AD to the present, within subject variations. It covers the history of Western Europe and its expansion overseas from the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Material is acquired in the language of origin, and as a consequence more than half of the collection is in languages other than English. See the Collections pages for further information about the library holdings.

The reference-only library is nationally funded, national in focus and is free to use for staff and postgraduate students of all UK and EU universities. There are now in the region of 167,000 volumes in the entire collection, including both monographs and periodicals.