The Library of Birmingham, in the West Midlands, is Europe’s largest library, housing a world-class collection of rare books, archives and photography. Treasures include one of the largest Shakespeare collections in the world and the famous Shakespeare Memorial Room, dating from the Victorian era.
Located at Centenary Square, beside the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the library boasts the Great Western Railways Collection, the Parker Collection of Children’s Books and Games, and even an outdoor amphitheatre for music, poetry reading, drama and storytelling.
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History
The library opened in September 2013, at a cost of £188.8 million. It is a flagship of the city’s ongoing redevelopment plan and is described as the largest public cultural space in Europe. Birmingham City Council had planned the library for many years and had confirmed the site as long ago as 2006.
The goal was to create a world-class landmark civic building. More than 100 architects entered a competition to design the building. The Royal Institute of British Architects chose Buro Happold as the winner.
Featuring two outdoor garden terraces, children’s areas and a viewing gallery at the summit that enables visitors to enjoy stunning panoramic views from one of Birmingham’s highest points, reaction to the ground-breaking design was positive.
Popular collections
The library’s archives contain an internationally famous collection of rare books. Thousands of individual collections can be found, dating from the 12th century. These include the Boulton and Watt Archive, the world’s most important archive of the Industrial Revolution.
Home to millions of images, these date from the earliest days of photography, including the Warwickshire Photographic collection, where the history of Birmingham since the 19th century is documented. The music collection contains an extensive range of specialist musical scores, recordings and books about music.
There are more than 8,000 books on world history, with themes including conflict and leadership. A historical collection of national and local newspapers dates back to the mid-18th century, which are all available on microfilm. There are also original copies of newspapers from various periods in history and of certain titles.
Shakespeare collection
John Henry Chamberlain designed the Shakespeare Memorial Room in 1882 for the original Central Library. The old library building was closed down and demolished in 1974. The Shakespeare room was dismantled and was fitted into the new building at the time.
When the Library of Birmingham was built, the Shakespeare Room was rebuilt again, brick for brick, on the top floor. Home to one of the world’s top two Shakespeare collections, it contains around 43,000 books, including some very rare items, such as the First Folio 1623.
With more than 70 editions of Shakespeare’s plays that were printed prior to 1709, including some from 1619, there are also large collections dating from the 18th to the 20th centuries and many anthologies, adaptations and individual editions.
Since 2016, the Library of Birmingham has remained the most visited free attraction outside London, sitting in 11th place, with 1.8 million visitors annually.
Automatic Access has been working with local councils in the UK on a series of new smart libraries – making use of redundant public buildings to turn them into meeting places for community groups.
We have supplied and installed automatic door operators in 15 smart libraries, starting with Leicestershire County Council’s programme and working in collaboration with the access control company. Council staff don’t need to be present at the libraries, thanks to the smart technology. Please contact us for details of our products and services.