There are four tiers of book stacks in the building. The first level is just underneath the Great Hall and the fourth level, the new Archive unit, is in the basement of the building. The entire stack is constructed of British steel. The total floor area is about 7,000 square yards. Only 2 inches separate the stack decks.
Small lifts convey the books from here to the various library departments.
Communication with the more distant departments used to be via pneumatic tube. The appearance of stack is utilitarian but some of the richest parts of the library collection are stored down here in various secure areas. There are also many special collections. The Theatre Collection which records the history of theatre in Manchester through playbills, programmes and other memorabilia. The new archive unit is located in the place of the former Stack 4.