1824–1851 The library is made up of collections brought together on various occasions: These are the library of the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, established in 1824; the library of the Manchester Medical Society, established in 1834; the library of the
Manchester Royal Infirmary from the 1750s to the late 19th century; and the Radford Library from
Saint Mary's Hospital, Manchester (early obstetrical and gynaecological literature collected by surgeon
Thomas Radford). (The two latter collections were donated to the Medical Library in 1917 and 1927 respectively.) The library of the Manchester Mechanics' Institute was the original library which eventually became the UMIST Library (Joule Library) which was merged with the John Rylands University Library in October 2004.
1851–1936 Owens College was founded in 1851 and the college library began with donations from James Heywood (1,200 volumes) and
William Charles Henry in the first year. The first large addition to stock was the library of
James Prince Lee, bishop of Manchester, 7,000 volumes in 1869 and then a further instalment. The collection contained theology, church history and fine art. Over the following 30 years, many additions were made such as the personal libraries of
E. A. Freeman (6,000 volumes) and
Robert Angus Smith (4,000 volumes). In 1904 the Owens College Library became the Manchester University Library when the college merged with the Victoria University of Manchester which had been so named in 1903. The library had three locations in its early years,
Cobden's House on
Quay Street, the John Owens Building between 1873 and 1898 and the Christie Building from autumn 1898. From 1903 the librarian (
Charles Leigh) improved the administration of the library by introducing the
Dewey Decimal Classification and higher cataloguing standards. On the death of Richard Copley Christie the library received his personal library of over 8,000 volumes including many rare books from the
Renaissance period. By 1933 the Christie Library's stock amounted to 256,000 volumes. In 1936 the library was divided into two when the Arts Library opened on Lime Grove. Thereafter the Christie Building contained only scientific and technical literature. The medical school had its own library founded in 1834 as the library of the Manchester Medical Society accommodated in Owens College once the
Medical School was established there in 1874 and on its centenary in 1934 was enriched by the Manchester Collection of E. Bosdin Leech relating to the medical history of the Manchester district. From 1919 the Deaf Education collection was established and was significantly enlarged by Abraham Farrar's bequest.
1936–present Moses Tyson For the first thirty years of this period the librarian was Moses Tyson (1897–1969) who had previously been keeper of western manuscripts at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. He was a historian and the first University Librarian to be a member of the University Senate. The building of a new Arts Library meant that the stock had to be divided into two groups of subjects: arts and social sciences, and science and technology. The latter subjects remained in the original Christie Library though in areas of overlap there was some duplicating of entries in the library catalogues to assist the readers. By the early 1950s the stock had grown to such a size that the arts library building needed to be extended. This had been foreseen by the architects and once funds were available the building of two new wings in a similar style was undertaken between 1953 and 1957 (however the pattern of reading and stack rooms in the three wings is not the same). Features such as an exhibition hall and a department of special collections were included in the design together with improvements in the administrative accommodation. New departments had been established in the university by this time and these meant that the library extended its coverage in areas such as American studies, history of art, music and Near Eastern studies.
Frederick Ratcliffe to Christopher Pressler After Tyson's retirement in 1965, F. W. Ratcliffe was appointed librarian and a period of further expansion followed which included an ambitious acquisitions policy, the beginnings of library computerisation and better liaison with the academic departments. He had a major role, with Sir
William Mansfield Cooper, the vice-chancellor until 1970, in the successful merger of the John Rylands Library with the Manchester University Library on 19 July 1972. An additional extension was planned about this time though it was not built until eight years later as funding was not then available. The extension was planned as a rectangular block, in two unequal parts (the second part was never built). Before the extension could be built congestion in the library building had to be alleviated by moving some stock to other locations on the campus. The benefaction of Muriel Stott, an honorary governor of the John Rylands Library, enabled the building of a tent-like octagonal hall next to the library, the Muriel Stott Conference Centre (on the building of the extension this was enclosed by the rest of the library). The design of the extension was modified when actually implemented in 1979 so that a link section united it with the three-wing existing library building. This new extension opened in the autumn term of 1981 and at the same time the medical and science (Christie) libraries were vacated so that a more coherent organisation of stock became possible. By the time this building opened Ratcliffe had left to be the
University Librarian at
Cambridge. Ratcliffe was succeeded in 1981 by Dr Michael Pegg, formerly Librarian of the
University of Birmingham, who remained until he resigned on grounds of ill health in 1991. He was followed by Christopher J. Hunt (formerly Social Sciences sub-librarian at Manchester) who later became university librarian of
James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, and of
La Trobe University, both in Australia, and, after returning to the UK, librarian of the
British Library of Political and Economic Science, London. On Mr Hunt's retirement, William G. Simpson, librarian of
Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed. Mr Simpson had previously been Acting Deputy Librarian of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester until 1985 and subsequently university librarian of the Universities of London and Surrey. Mr. Simpson remained until his retirement in December 2007. During the period 2004–07 a major refurbishment of the historic John Rylands Library in the centre of Manchester, together with the construction of new visitor centre, was completed, whilst the Library as a whole merged with the libraries of UMIST and the Manchester Business School to create The John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester. Following Mr. Simpson's retirement in 2007,
Jan Wilkinson (then Head of Higher Education at the British Library and formerly University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds and Deputy Librarian at the London School of Economics) was appointed as University Librarian and Director of The John Rylands Library, taking up the post in January 2008. In 2019,
Christopher Pressler, formerly University Librarian of
Dublin City University, the
University of London and the
University of Nottingham was appointed John Rylands University Librarian and Director of The University of Manchester Library.
Former librarians Notable librarians of the library before 1972 were
Charles W. E. Leigh (1903–1935),
Moses Tyson (1935–1965) and
Frederick William Ratcliffe (formerly assistant librarian, librarian 1965–1980) whose years of service amount to a total of 78 years. George Wilson was librarian of the Medical Library for over 50 years. ==References==