Senate House Library, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
(020) 7862 8454: History Collection
(020) 7862 8456: Latin
American/Caribbean history
(020) 7862 8435: United States history
(020) 7862
8461/8462: Information and Enquiry Services (always staffed)
(020) 7862 8470: Special Collections/Manuscript Studies (inc. Palaeography)
(020) 7862 8480
The entrance to the Library is on the 4th floor of the Senate House. The History Collection is on the 6th floor, the Latin American Collection, which includes Latin American and Caribbean history, is on the 7th floor, and the United States Collection, which includes the history of the United States, is on the 5th floor. Special Collections/ Manuscript Studies (inc. Palaeography) are in the Small Hall, Ground Floor, North Block of the Senate House.
Senate House Library term dates and opening hours
Membership of the Senate House Library is available without personal charge to academic staff and eligible students of the University. A membership card is issued on production of a College registration card or other form of identification where appropriate.
Direct charges are levied for library membership for Graduates and Diplomates of the University, undergraduates and taught Masters Degree students not registered with the University, External and extra-mural students, private researchers and for corporate membership. Reference only weekly reading cards, and day tickets, are also available on payment of a fee.
Membership for academic staff and research students of UK higher education institutions is provided free of charge under the SCONUL Access scheme. Full details of how to obtain access to Senate House Library can be found on the library website at http:// www.shl.lon.ac.uk/library/membership.shtml
Membership is granted on production of valid identification confirming the status of the holder as a currently registered research student or member of academic staff.
Enquiries regarding membership may be made to the membership desk in the Entrance Hall in person, by telephone (020) 7862 8439 or 8440, or by Email to shl.membership@london.ac.uk
Assistance can be arranged for users with mobility or visual impairment. Wheelchair users or other users with access difficulties can be accommodated on request. Assistance may be required as there is little space between some bookstacks. In the first instance please contact the Communications Team on (020) 7862 8443 who will advise.
LIBRARIANS IN CHARGE
| Mr Ross Woollard (History Collection) | ross.woollard@london..ac.uk |
| Mrs Christine Anderson (Latin American History and Caribbean History) | christine.anderson@london.ac.uk |
| Mrs Shereen Colvin (United States History) | shereen.colvin@london.ac.uk |
| Mrs Christine Wise (Special Collections) | christine.wise@london.ac.uk |
The Librarians named above are usually on duty between 0900 and 1700 Monday – Friday. Enquiries should be made in the first instance to the Information Centre on the 4th floor.
The on-line system provides access to most history books and periodicals in the library and to books on order and in the library but not yet catalogued. The on-line catalogue gives access by authors' names, titles, subjects and keywords as well as classification. Some earlier material is recorded in the card catalogue, which is accessible at http://cards.shl.lon.ac.uk
The catalogues of the Senate House Library and of all other libraries in the University of London Research Library Services can be found at http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk
CLASSIFICATION
Bliss classification scheme. Some books published before 1958 have not been reclassified into this scheme; books in this category are all on closed access and most of them are not heavily used.
The collections of the Senate House Library comprise about two million titles, plus extensive collections of archives, manuscripts and artefacts.
The Collection Development and Access to Information Policy of the Library is defined in terms of providing research support, predominantly across the Humanities. The policy of the History Collections reflects this framework. The collections are complementary to those of the Institute of Historical Research.
History Collection
The Collections comprise overall some 280,000 titles. The wider collections cover all parts of the world, although some material is housed within area studies or other subject and special collections. The History Collection has not acquired material on any scale in Eastern European, Russian or in Asian or African languages as it has been recognised that, within the University, this is a prime function of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Area Studies Collections
The Latin American Collection is one of the specialist resource centres for Latin American Studies in the United Kingdom, and is the largest open access separately shelved research collection in this field.
The United States Collection is one of the most comprehensive collections in the country in its field, also containing the libraries of the US Embassy and Institute of US Studies with which it has been merged.
The Library also holds the libraries of the Canadian and Australian High Commissions, which build on the Library’s strengths in these areas.
Rare Books, Special Collections & Archives /
Manuscripts
The Library holds a wide range of primary source materials which are of interest to the historian. A significant number of collections of national / international importance are held of which the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature (comprising over 70,000 titles), with particular strengths in pre-1850 economic and social history, is the outstanding collection in its field in the world. The database MOMW (The Making of the Modern World: Goldsmiths’-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450 – 1850) is based on the collection and contains the full text of many of the publications in the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature. It can be found at http://www.gale.com/ModernWorld/index.htm
A list of named collections can be found on the Library web pages.
Palaeography
The Palaeography Room is considered to be the best open access research and teaching collection for Western Manuscript Studies in the country. It contains catalogues of manuscripts and palaeographical works, guides to archives, and indices to the Library’s own substantial manuscript collections.
Periodicals Collections
There is a large collection of open access periodicals in the Senate House Library. The periodicals collections are one of the Library’s greatest strengths. These include the collections of historical periodicals from the eighteenth century onwards (over 20,000 titles) which are increasingly regarded as being a national resource. An increasing number of periodicals are available in electronic versions, and these can be searched for at http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S22
British Government Publications
The collection includes much of value to history students, e.g. complete sets of House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (1801 to date), of Hansard and of House of Commons and House of Lords Journals, and all published British Census returns (1801 to date). Most of the printed material is located at the Depository or in the Stack, so a request to the Stack Service for printed versions is necessary. The Library has access to the full text online of all 18th,19th and 20th century Parliamentary Papers, and to the full text on microfiche for all 20th century Parliamentary Papers. Most of the older material is not catalogued (but there are databases and indexes available to facilitate identification of relevant material).
Further information on the British Government Publications available in Senate House Library can be found at http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/subjects/governmentpublications/index.shtml
Social Sciences Collections
The collections contain books on many subjects relevant to historians, including the history of Communism, Fascism, Marxism, political parties and elections, Slavery, Trade Unions, Women, and general economic history. The collection is located on the 6th floor adjacent to the History Collection.
A number of electronic resources of value to historians are available on site and off site to library card holders at http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/databaseauth.asp, with the occasional exception. Assistance is available from staff in the Library’s Information Centre, located in the Periodicals Reading Room. These include:
Historical Abstracts – an online index to material published from 1954 to date, covering history from 1450 onwards (excluding the United States and Canada).Covers approximately 2,100 journal titles published throughout the world.
America: History and Life – an online index, covering the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
International Medieval Bibliography – an interdisciplinary bibliography of the European Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the period 400 – 1500. The database comprises over 300,000 articles from 4500 periodicals and 5000 volumes of conference proceedings, essay collections, festschriften and exhibition catalogues.
Royal Historical Society Bibliography – a comprehensive, online database of references to literature on the history of Britain, Ireland and the British overseas. The database comprises nearly 446,000 entries, and aims to be as comprehensive as is practical for publications since 1900.
London's Past Online - a fully searchable online bibliography of published material relating to the history of Greater London which includes over 40,000 records.
Periodicals Index Online (PIO) – an electronic index to millions of articles published in over 5000 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences. Periodicals Index Online currently indexes over 17 million articles from as far back as 1665. The index was formerly known as Periodicals Contents Index (PCI).
Arts and Humanities Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index – these online databases index articles published from the 1970s to the present.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences – an online index to articles and books published from 1951 to date.
Palmer’s Index to the Times –a CD-ROM covering the period 1790 to 1905. (Paper indexes to the Times from 1785 to date are available in the Periodicals Room).
The Times Digital Archive – full text of the Times newspaper from 1785 to 1985.
Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals – also available on CD-ROM, this provides references to articles published in major nineteenth century periodicals. (The hard copy of this index is located in the Periodicals Room)
Links to quality web sites of relevance to historians are also maintained on the library’s web page at: http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/subjects/history/gateways.shtml
Please ask staff in the Information Centre, Periodicals Reading Room, if you require any assistance in using these electronic resources.
Theses subject enquiries are also dealt with in the Periodicals Room, where there are means for discovering all theses produced in the University of London, including those on historical subjects. Information on theses accepted at other British Universities, Universities in the United States and Canada, and some from other countries, is also available. There are explanatory leaflets.
Photocopying facilities are available. Permission from staff must be obtained before material is photocopied.
Microfiche and microfilm reading machines are available (4th Floor).
Seminar and Research Skills Teaching Facilities. The Dr Seng Tee Lee Centre for Manuscript and Book Studies in Special Collections is available for booking for seminars and / or research skills teaching based on primary sources. For further details contact the Library Office on (020) 7862 8432.
There are some small study rooms (carrels) available for researchers.
Macmillans Café on the ground floor of the Senate House building is, at the time of writing, open 08.00 – 10.00 for breakfast and 11.45 – 14.15 Monday – Friday for lunch, and the North Block Café, on the ground floor of the North Block of Senate House, is open 08.30 – 16.00 Monday – Friday.
Back to History Libraries and Collections in London list of libraries.