page_title: University of Sheffield
section_title: Libraries
hierarchical_section_title: University of Sheffield / Academics / Libraries
caption_attribution_description: English: Shefuniic2012
context_page_description: The University of Sheffield is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth College in 1879 and Sheffield Technical School in 1884. University College Sheffield was subsequently formed in 1897 by the amalgamation of the three institutions and gained royal charter as University of Sheffield in 1905.
  Sheffield is a multi-campus university predominantly over two campus areas in close proximity: the Western Bank and the St George's. The annual income of the institution for 2018–19 was £677.2 million of which £154.8 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £657.9 million. Sheffield ranks among the top 10 of UK universities for research grant funding, and it has become number one in the UK for income and investment in engineering research according to new data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. It is one of the top 7 British universities by postgraduate student enrollment along with UCL, King's, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Oxford.
context_section_description: The University of Sheffield has currently four libraries: Western Bank Library, the Information Commons, Health Sciences Library (Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Northern General Hospital), and The Diamond, holding a total of 1.5 million printed books. Western Bank Library was the university's main library until the opening of the Information Commons in 2007. The Grade II* listed library has 730 study spaces and contains 1.2 million texts for most subjects, as well as archives and special collections. The Information Commons (IC) is a 24/7 learning centre combining both library and IT services, which was the first of its kind in the UK. The IC houses 120,000 core textbooks for all undergraduate and postgraduate subjects, and has approximately 1,300 study spaces and 550 PCs. The university has two medical libraries collectively called the Health Sciences Library. It was opened at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in 1978, and a year later a branch at the Northern General Hospital was opened. The Royal Hallamshire Hospital library has collections cover medicine, dentistry, nursing and midwifery, and the Northern General Hospital library contains material for medicine and nursing. Opened its door in 2018, the Diamond provides 24-hour library services (and other teaching facilities), with in-demand textbooks, a non-loanable reference collection and over 1,000 study spaces. It replaces the 1992 St George’s Library on St George’s Campus as the main engineering library and study space. The University of Sheffield Library is a member of Research Libraries UK.
  Former libraries include Edgar Allen Library closed by the late 1950s and St George’s Library closed on 14th June 2015. Edgar Allen Library was the first university library. In 1905 when the university was established, the library was housed in a lecture room due to lack of funds to construct a purpose-built library. William Edgar Allen, a member of the University Council, provided £10,000 to build a proper library named Edgar Allen Library, locating beside the main university building (Firth Court). Edgar Allen Library had 100 seats in its reading room, shelves for 20,000 books, and a stack space for 60,000 more books. Sir Charles Harding Firth, the first lecturer in Modern History in Firth College, donated part of his personal collection to the library. Sheffield Town Trustee also helped the university to transform the General Lecture Theatre into a reading room housing the Firth Collection (rare book collection of approximately 20,000 volumes) in 1931. As the university rapidly expanded in the 1950s, it became necessary to replace Edgar Allen Library with a modern post-war era library. The library, later known as the Western Bank Library, was opened on 12th May 1959. Edgar Allen Library (now the Rotunda in Firth Court) became the Registrar and Secretary's Office. St George’s Library (now 38 Mappin Street) was refurbished as an exam venue.
caption: The Information Commons
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