Work begins on specialist library
Posted on 15 August 2001
Work has begun on a new specialist library - the Raymond Burton Humanities Research Library - at the University of York. The building is a flagship project in the University's massive capital development programme and will be a strong architectural statement from the top of the hill overlooking the University campus. It will be open in the autumn of 2002.
It is a highly unusual project. Most new library buildings in universities are 'learning centres', focused on the mass needs of large numbers of undergraduate students. The Humanities Research Library is designed for special collections, state-of-the-art archive facilities and electronic and hard-copy published materials for leading scholars.
"This initiative comes at just the right time and is perfect for York", said University Librarian Elizabeth Heaps. "York is a young university and its library collections in the last 38 years have had to focus on the needs of students. But given York's outstanding reputation for its scholarship, it is time to invest in the very best facilities for researchers, so that our library is in tune with our academic reputation."
"We expect that scholars from all over the world will want to come and use our library."
The Humanities Research Library is funded by a generous benefaction of £2 million from the Raymond Burton Charitable Trust and by £1 million of the University's own funds. A special fund, the Friends of the University of York Library, will play a part in attracting gifts of special collections to complement the University's existing research collections.
The Borthwick Institute of Historical Research also hopes to move to the site. The Borthwick holds the records of the Archbishops of York (covering the whole of the North of England) as well as numerous genealogical records, health archives, the Rowntree archive and numerous private collections. Amongst its archives are the original Will of Charlotte Bronte and the marriage contracts of William Wordsworth and Anthony Trollope.
Notes to editors:
- Special features of the building include the special collections store, with rolling stack shelving, and the special collections reading room, where items from the special collections will be brought for consultation. The ventilation and temperature have been designed in the latest style of passive environmental control, by which the construction and fabric of the building ensure that temperature and humidity fluctuations are slow and kept within an acceptable range.
- The first floor, double-height, reading room provides for a combination of reading desks and shelving, to enable ready access to open collections, in a pleasant, airy environment. It will be cabled to allow a combination of media, ranging from printed books to electronic resources. A microform room will house major collections in microfilm with equipment on which to read them. A further small reading room will appear to be suspended at mezzanine level in the main reading room, and will be a haven of quiet for researchers. There are two seminar rooms for around 30 people which can be converted into one large room suitable for 80 people. Finally on the top floor there will be a project room where special projects concerned with humanities research or with the library's collections can be situated.
- York's official research ratings in humanities and social sciences rank amongst the highest in the university system. Subject areas are given scores ranging from 1 to 5* (with 4 upwards signifying research of international significance). York's results are: Archaeology 4; Economics 5; Education 4; English 5; History 4; Language 4; Music 5; Philosophy 3b; Politics 4; Social Policy 5; Social Work 5; Sociology 4.