We welcome all visitors to the Cadbury Research Library and look forward to assisting you with your research.
If you are a University of Birmingham student or current staff member, you do not need to book. Simply arrive during our opening hours, below, and bring your current University of Birmingham identity card.
If you are external to the University of Birmingham, please see the booking details below.
How booking your visit
- Requests for appointments should be made at least one week in advance.
- Email special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk to book.
- State your first and second choice dates. See below for our opening hours.
- Specify what you’d like to view when you make your booking request. Up to six archive boxes or ten printed books can be pre-ordered. If you are unsure about the quantity of material you are requesting, list your items in order of priority and the first six boxes will be fetched initially for you. Additional material can be ordered on the day of your visit.
- You will need to bring official identification when you visit confirming your name, address and signature.
University of Birmingham staff and students are not required to pre-book, but if you would like to, please book as outlined above.
Opening times
The search room is open Monday to Friday 10.00 to 17.00, with lunch closure 13.00 to 13.30.
Last requests for ordering archives and rare books is 16.00.
Outside of these hours our staff are supporting the research community by:
We are closed on Bank Holidays and University of Birmingham closed days.
Researcher services
- One hour virtual consultations via Zoom. Discuss your requirements by email.
- Reprographics copying service
Taking copies of material in the search room
You are welcome to bring a hand-held camera (e.g. a mobile phone camera) to take images of material for personal use (subject to copyright). Tripods for cameras may not be used in the search room. If images are required for anything other than private study, please contact our Imaging service.
If material you are consulting is on microfilm or online, you are welcome to copy pages relevant to your research onto your own memory stick.
Teaching using collections at the University of Birmingham
If you would like to discuss options for delivering teaching at the University of Birmingham using the special collections, please email the CRL team.
Directions
Contact us