Language and Literature Library

The Language and Literature Library is a department within Manchester Central Library devoted entirely to the study of literature and languages. This material is available for reference and/or lending use: books, periodicals, foreign language literature, language courses, sign language, play sets, CDs and DVDs. In 2008 the Language and Literature Library moved from the fourth floor to the first.

The literary special collections are held by the Language and Literature Library, which was created in the early 1960s. The impetus for many of the collections came from John Albert Green, the librarian from 1895 of the then independent Moss Side Library (demolished in the 1960s). He persuaded several local and international collectors as well as relatives of famous authors to donate their collections to this library. When Moss Side amalgamated with Manchester Public Libraries they were moved to a Special Collections department within the Central Library with Green as its first librarian. The Moss Side collections comprise: Gaskell Collection; De Quincey Collection; and the Gleave Bronte Collection. The Coleridge Collection also belonged to Green, though it was not kept at Moss Side.

Related Material:See Foreign Library M740/8/12