Durham University Library
Encyclopedia
The Durham University Library is the centrally-administered library of Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

 in England. It was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green
Palace Green
Palace Green is a small area of grass in the centre of Durham, England, flanked by Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle. The Cathedral and Castle together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site....

 by a 160 volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert
William Van Mildert
William Van Mildert was the last palatine Bishop of Durham , and one of the founders of the University of Durham...

 and now holds over 1.5 million printed items. The University Library comprises four separate libraries:
  • Main Library
  • Education Library
  • Palace Green
    Palace Green
    Palace Green is a small area of grass in the centre of Durham, England, flanked by Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle. The Cathedral and Castle together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site....

     Library
  • Queen's Campus Library

Cosin's Library

After the donation by Bishop William Van Mildert, a suitable location to house the library's stock had to be founded and thus a gallery had to be constructed onto the Cosin's Library (a Diocesan library founded in 1669 by Bishop John Cosin
John Cosin
John Cosin was an English churchman.-Life:He was born at Norwich, and was educated at Norwich grammar school and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was scholar and afterwards fellow. On taking orders he was appointed secretary to Bishop Overall of Lichfield, and then domestic chaplain to...

 located on Palace Green) in 1834. The original Cosin's library is still located at Palace Green and along with its collection of medieval manuscripts and early printed books became under the trusteeship
Trusteeship
Trusteeship may refer to*Trust law *Trusteeship *United Nations Trusteeship...

 of the University Library in 1937.

Cosin's Library is a grade one listed building and is located in an UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

. The internal architecture and decoration are also of international importance. The original portrait panels located above the bookshelves were painted by Jan Baptist van Eerssell in 1668-9, further portraits hang in the library including half portraits of English statesmen. Nearly three hundred years later a former University Librarian, David Ramage, completed Cosin's original plan for the library by painting further portrait panels for the smaller room added in 1670-71.

In October 2005, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council is a non-departmental public body in England and a registered charity with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives...

 designated the collections in Cosin's Library as having an "outstanding national and international significance".

Additional bequeathed or donated collections during the 1850s (most notably by Dr Martin Joseph Routh in 1854, Bishop Edward Maltby in 1856 and Dr Thomas Mastermann Winterbottom in 1859) led to a further expansion of the library, with the upper two floors of the Exchequer Building (former Bishoprick Law Courts from 1450) being occupied. As the library's stock further expanded more space was gradually needed with a nineteenth-century lecture block eventually becoming part of the Library, and an extension to the Palace Green Library in 1966 being needed to provided a reading room and a new space for the University Library.

Recent History

The University Library has undergone many developments since the 1980s, with the first online circulation system being introduced in 1983, the Main Library won a SCONUL
SCONUL
SCONUL is the membership organisation for all academic and national libraries in the UK and Ireland.-History:...

 Library Design Award in 1988 and the online cataloguing of the library's stock beginning in 1990. In 1996 the Durham University Library also joined the Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles (now Research Libraries UK).

In the succeeding years the University Library was expanded further with an extension of the main library in 1997 and also became the first library in 1998 to incorporate non-Roman scripts into its electronic catalogue system. Further in 2004, the Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...

 Library became part of the University Library's management system for circulation and lending.

List of past Librarians

  • 1832-1834 - The Revd Patrick George
  • 1834-1855 - The Revd Charles Thomas Whitley
  • 1856-1858 - The Revd Robert Healey Blakey
  • 1858-1864 - The Revd Henry Frederick Long
  • 1865-1868 - The Revd Francis Frederick Walrond
  • 1869-1873 - The Revd Thomas Forster Dodd
  • 1873-1901 - The Revd Joseph Thomas Fowler
  • 1901-1934 - Mr. Edward Vazeille Stocks
  • 1934-1945 - Mr. Henry Waldo Acomb
  • 1940-1943 - Miss Beatrice Thompson (Acting Librarian)
  • 1945-1967 - Mr. David Goudie Ramage
  • 1967-1989 - Miss Agnes Maxwell McAulay
  • 1989-2009 - Dr John Tristan Dalton Hall
  • 2009–Present - Mr. Jon Purcell

Heritage, Research and Special Collections

As part of its collection, the library contains a wealth of printed and manuscript material with a particular wealth of material from the medieval period and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 along with materials from the North East. These include:
  • Middle East and Islamic Studies collections: One of the most important collections in the UK, it contains over 50,000 monographs and over 2,500 periodicals covering the Ottoman Empire
    Ottoman Empire
    The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

     to ancient Mesopotamian archaeology to modern Persian literature
    Persian literature
    Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

    .
  • The Sudan
    Sudan
    Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

     Archive
    : Set up in 1957 by a former lecturer contains private papers of British subjects living in Sudan during the Anglo-Egyptian Condomunium and the papers of Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive
    Khedive
    The term Khedive is a title largely equivalent to the English word viceroy. It was first used, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and vassal of the Ottoman Empire...

     of Egypt 1892-1914. In 2005 the collection was accorded with designated status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
  • Bamburgh Library Collection
    Bamburgh Castle
    Bamburgh Castle is an imposing castle located on the coast at Bamburgh in Northumberland, England. It is a Grade I listed building.-History:...

    : Created in 1958, the collection holds some 8,500 manuscript and print titles, with 16 incunabula across a variety of subject areas. The collection was largely acquired during the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries by the Archbishop of York, John Sharp (1644–1714) along with three generations of the Sharp Family. The collection contains the 1533 edition of the Psalms from Freiburg and Joannes Guinterius's Anatomicarum institutionum libri.
  • Bibliotheca Episcopalis Dunelmensis (Cosin Collection): Founded in 1669 by the then Bishop John Cosin. The collection contains over 5,000 titles, including 9 incunabula, over 600 foreign 16th-century titles. The collection is largely in French or German and based on theological issues such as Canon law
    Canon law
    Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

     and liturgy
    Liturgy
    Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

    . The collection contains Cosin's 1568 Zürich edition of Heinrich Bullinger
    Heinrich Bullinger
    Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...

    's De origine erroris.
  • Howard Collection: Contains the library of Lord William Howard
    Lord William Howard
    Lord William Howard was an English nobleman and antiquary, sometimes known as "Belted or Bauld Will".-Life:...

     of Naworth. The collection is largely of Roman Catholic texts including a Vienna imprint of Stanislaus Hosius
    Stanislaus Hosius
    Stanislaus Hosius was a cardinal, since 1551 Prince-Bishop in Bishopric of Warmia, Poland since 1558 papal legate to the Holy Roman Emperor's Imperial Court in Vienna, Austria and since 1566 a papal legate to Poland.Hosius was born in Kraków as the son of Ulrich Hos of Pforzheim and studied law...

    's Confessio catholicae fidei christiana of 1561.
  • Quakerism Collection: Acquired in 1972 from the surviving collection of the Sunderland Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends Library and contains approx. 880 printed volumes and a number of related manuscripts.
  • Kellett Collection: Principally composed of the library of Dr C. E. de M. Kellett, focusing on medicine and medical teaching. The collection contains a number of pre-18th century along with 16th and 17th century works, including Aristotle
    Aristotle
    Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

    's Totius naturalis philosophiae Aristotelis paraphrases and Galen
    Galen
    Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

    's De sanitate tuenda alongside Vidius
    Vidius
    Vidius is a genus of skippers in the family Hesperiidae.-References:*...

    's Chirurgia and Estienne
    Estienne
    Estienne, or Etienne is the French form of the name of a French family of scholars and printers. Members are* Henri Estienne, founder of the dynasty * Robert Estienne...

    's De Dissectione.
  • Routh Collection: Is the library of Martin Joseph Routh
    Martin Joseph Routh
    Martin Joseph Routh was an English classical scholar and President of Magdalen College, Oxford .-Life:...

    , President of Magdalen College, Oxford. The collection is in two sections the first on early Church Fathers entitled Reliquiae sacrae and his edition of Gilbert Burnet
    Gilbert Burnet
    Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...

    's History of his own time. Of the incunabula one of the most notable is Breydenbach's Itinerarium in terram sanctam. The collection contains a wealth of dating from the 14th century.
  • St Chad's Collection: Deposited by St Chad's College, Durham contains a number of 16th and 17th century imprints including Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
    Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
    Quintus Aurelius Symmachus was a Roman statesman, orator, and man of letters. He held the offices of governor of Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and consul in 391...

    's Epistolae familiares and the Concilia omnia.
  • Basil Bunting
    Basil Bunting
    Basil Cheesman Bunting was a significant British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of Briggflatts in 1966. He had a lifelong interest in music that led him to emphasise the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud...

     Poetry Archive
    : Acquired in 1987 with grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Purchase Grant Fund. It is the most extensive collection in the UK of the work of Basil Bunting (1900–1985) and of material relating to him.
  • Pratt Green Collection
    Fred Pratt Green
    The Reverend Fred Pratt Green CBE was a British Methodist minister and hymnwriter.Born in Roby, Lancashire, England, he began his ministry in the Filey circuit. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1928 and served circuits in the north and south of England until 1969. During his career as a...

    : Is a collection founded in 1987 and contains an extensive aray of hymns and hymnology. The collection was with a gift from the Pratt Green Trustees and contains work from the distinguished hymn writer, The Reverend Dr Fred Pratt Green
    Fred Pratt Green
    The Reverend Fred Pratt Green CBE was a British Methodist minister and hymnwriter.Born in Roby, Lancashire, England, he began his ministry in the Filey circuit. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1928 and served circuits in the north and south of England until 1969. During his career as a...

    .
  • Malcolm MacDonald
    Malcolm MacDonald
    Malcolm John MacDonald OM, PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Background:MacDonald was the son of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Margaret MacDonald. Like his father he was born in Lossiemouth, Moray...

     Papers
    : Papers covering the life of the former politician and Chancellor of the University.
  • Earl Grey Collection
    Earl Grey
    Earl Grey is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1806 for General Charles Grey, 1st Baron Grey. He had already been created Baron Grey, of Howick in the County of Northumberland, in 1801, and was made Viscount Howick, in the County of Northumberland, at the same time as...

    : Contains extensive works and papers of the former Prime Minister.
  • Durham University Observatory
    Durham University Observatory
    The Durham University Observatory is a weather observatory owned and operated by the University of Durham. It is a Grade II listed building located at Potters Bank, Durham and was founded in 1839 initially as an astronomical and meteorological observatory by Temple Chevallier until 1937 when the...

     Records
    : Contains the second longest meteorological record in the UK from 1839–1953, also contains records of other local observatories.
  • Medieval Seals
    Seal (device)
    A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...

    : The collection contains many Royal and ecclesiastic devices including Duncan I king of Scots, Henry III
    Henry III of England
    Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

     king of England, first great seal and the seal of Pope Martin IV
    Pope Martin IV
    Pope Martin IV, born Simon de Brion held the papacy from February 21, 1281 until his death....

    .

Partnerships

The University Library is a member of several organisation, including:
  • Research Libraries UK
  • The Association of European Research Libraries
  • The Middle East Libraries Committee (UK)
  • The North East Museums Libraries and Archives Council
  • Research Libraries Group
    Research Libraries Group
    The Research Libraries Group was a U.S.-based library consortium which developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections...

  • Society of College, National and University Libraries
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