The Shakespeare Institute Library, also known as the Johnson Library, contains over 60,000 volumes, archives, manuscripts, and audio-visual collections relating to Shakespeare and Renaissance drama. This includes a wide variety of different publications covering the literary, cultural, political, religious, and social history of the period. Our holdings and the other work of the library helps to support the campus-based and online postgraduate degrees delivered by the Shakespeare Institute. We aim to collect every significant publication required for these studies.
The library opened in 1995 on the Shakespeare Institute's site at Mason Croft. The University of Birmingham’s Special Collections department comprises three distinct research libraries: the Barber Fine Art Library, the Cadbury Research Library, and the Shakespeare Institute Library.
Making our service inclusive
We are committed to making our service inclusive, and respectful to all. We are aware that there is much work to do to make sure that our catalogues and other research tools reflect this commitment. We are working to improve our knowledge and understanding so that we can revise the language used in our catalogues and other finding aids that are already in use, and write for the future in a way that is relevant, helpful, does not make anyone feel excluded or unwelcome, or use prejudicial language. If you have any suggestions or comments, please email silib@contacts.bham.ac.uk