BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY

The Society’s library, for many years housed at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London, moved in January 2007 to Senate House, Malet Street, WC1E 7HU, where it was available alongside the resources of the Senate House Library. From July 2017 the Bibliographical Society Library moved to The Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex. The collection is now housed in open-access shelving at The Albert Sloman Library.

Full details of contacts and opening hours at The Albert Sloman Library can be found on the web at https://library.essex.ac.uk/home.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVE

The Society’s archives cover every aspect of the Society’s activities from its foundation in 1892 to 2008. Comprising the records of a private society without a permanent office and run by honorary officers, the coverage is patchy and at times haphazard and researchers will find unexpected gaps and equally unexpected inclusions. For many years it was run from the British Museum (now British Library), the records being kept in the Keepers’ offices. They include Council minutes, sub-committee reports and minutes, AGM minutes, membership lists, printed term cards, photographs, exhibition catalogues, and the records of Colophon, the Council’s dining club. The correspondence of honorary secretaries, and of editors’ of The Library bulks large, along with material concerned with the publication of certain monographs and the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue.

The archives are on deposit with the Bodleian Library and a finding list is on the Bodleian website: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/modern/bib-soc/bib-soc.html

The Society’s North American records were donated to the Archives at the University of Wyoming in early 2021. The material, known as ‘Bibliographical Society (Great Britain) records #12790’, can be accessed via an online finding aid here:https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv485334.