University's new Main Library to open 19 September

We are delighted to announce that the University’s new Main Library will open for business on 19 September 2016.

The old Main Library will close for the last time on Friday 16 September at 13:00 and our new Main Library will open on Monday 19 September at 10:30.

Please note that on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September there will be no access to the Main Library.

This long awaited vanguard development, will place a truly inspirational library experience right at the heart of our beautiful and evolving campus, with outstanding facilities embracing new and emerging technologies.

The wishes of staff and students have been central to the design and layout of the new building, which will be filled with bright and airy study spaces, power points, computers and a wide range of rooms tailor-made to accommodate different users’ needs. Expert library staff will be on hand from the outset to help everyone to find their way around and access the myriad texts, support and resources.

To celebrate the opening, a special, publicly accessible, exhibition will be held in the new Main Library Lounge, running until June 30 2017. Called Inspiring Knowledge, it will showcase works from our collections that have pushed the boundaries of Western knowledge over the last 500 years and will include three landmark publications representing the arts, sciences and humanities that are held in our Cadbury Research Collections. These are: The Works of Chaucer, 1561; Andrea Vesalius’s On The Fabric of the Human Body, 1543 (known as Fabrica); and The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.To accompany the exhibition, three of the University’s academics: Professor Alice Roberts, Professor Steve Ellis and Dr Elaine Fulton, will be giving a series of public lectures on the three cornerstone texts to coincide with key events and celebrations. Details of these events will be circulated well in advance.

Details of how library services will be affected will be posted on Facebook and via the University intranet in the run-up to the opening.

In the meantime, for further information please contact the library on 0121 414 5828 or via instant chat.