Skip to content

Update: Re-opening of Special Collections Service Reading Room

Author
fionamelhuish
Published Date
August 12, 2020

 

We are looking forward to welcoming researchers back to The MERL and the University of Reading Special Collections reading room from Tuesday 8 September 2020.

This includes all the Museum’s galleries, our reading room, library and archive, and the shop, café and garden.

We have greatly missed you during these difficult months, and are overjoyed to be so close to welcoming you back.

As we return to The MERL and the University of Reading Special Collections, we have taken many steps to ensure that you – our researchers and visitors – will be safe and comfortable during your time in the reading room and elsewhere in our building, and we will be sharing much more news about this very shortly.

We will be posting more information about how to book a slot in the reading room and how we can accommodate your visit, and look forward to updating you again very soon!

Published Date
February 13, 2026

Mills & Boon: The Surprise Archive 

Having long been a lover of a good romance novel, it was a dream come true to be granted permission…

Published Date
February 2, 2026

Festivals of the Imagination: early editions of novels and poetry by James Joyce 

In 2020, Stephen James Joyce, Joyce’s grandson, bequeathed the Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection to the University of Reading Special…

James Joyce is sitting on a chair. His young son has his arm around his father's neck and they are holding hands.
Published Date
December 9, 2025

Family photos from the personal archive of James Joyce

The Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection The University of Reading has acquired a major collection of books, documents and…

Published Date
November 24, 2025

A Century in Print: Exploring Student Life Through University of Reading’s Magazines (Part 2)

We continue our journey through the extensive range of periodical publications housed in the University History collection, also known as…

Published Date
November 14, 2025

A Century in Print: Exploring Student Life Through University of Reading’s Magazines (Part 1)

As part of the Special Collections library team, I am responsible for cataloguing and making available the printed and published…

A pile of letters from the late 1950s showing colourful designs and stamps
Published Date
October 23, 2025

A pile of old letters – new research methods, vintage limitations

  Written by Amanda Knight, Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant, 2024-2025.   As the latest in a succession of Graduate Trainee Archive…