New partnership - John Rylands Research Institute and The John Rylands Library

09 Mar 2021

The two organisations will now be known as the John Rylands Research Institute and Library

The John Rylands Research Institute and the University’s iconic John Rylands Library are forging an exciting new partnership as the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. The renaming signals much closer collaboration between researchers and Library staff, in order to promote more effectively world-class research and public engagement with research, based on the remarkable special collections of The University of Manchester Library.

The John Rylands Library was founded in 1900 and since 1972 it has been the home of The University of Manchester Library’s astonishingly rich and diverse special collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives and visual materials. It is truly one of the great libraries of the world. The John Rylands Research Institute was established in 2013 as a partnership between the Library and the Faculty of Humanities to encourage research using the Library’s unique collections.

This partnership is now moving to another level, led by Professor Hannah Barker, Director of the John Rylands Research Institute, and Professor Christopher Pressler, John Rylands University Librarian. 

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library (Rylands for short) will be a dynamic community of world-leading researchers, librarians, curators, archivists, conservators and imaging specialists, all dedicated to working together to open the collections up to innovative and multidisciplinary research and engaging wider audiences in that research. Its mission is to define the human experience over five millennia and up to the current day.

The Rylands acts as a catalyst and focus for the world-leading research of the University, with the aim of drawing the best minds to Manchester and establishing it as one of the great centres for the study of textual, material and visual cultures. The research incorporates new approaches in digital humanities and curation, as well as scientific techniques in the study and conservation of heritage materials.

Professor Christopher Pressler, John Rylands University Librarian and Director of The University of Manchester Library, said: “The Rylands is one of the undisputed great libraries of the world. The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is well positioned to realise the tremendous potential of the special collections to support world-class research, learning and public engagement with research, throughout the University.”

The formation of the Rylands coincides with a successful bid, worth nearly £800K, to the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Capability for Collections (CapCo) fund. The award will enable the purchase of state-of-the art cameras, visualisers, microscopes and oral history equipment to support our ground-breaking imaging and conservation units and the work of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre, further enhancing the research capability of collections and making new discoveries possible. The leading-edge equipment will provide flexible digitisation, investigation and data collection solutions based on the requirements of collections and researchers to support multidisciplinary approaches.

Professor Hannah Barker, Director of the John Rylands Research Institute, said: “Thanks to the combined efforts of the Institute and the Library we are revitalising the Rylands as a catalyst for outstanding research across the humanities and sciences.”