FindIt@Bham

The Cadbury Research Library (CRL) holds over 250,00 rare books and more than 4 million archive items.

All books and archives located at Cadbury Research Library can only be viewed by visiting our searchroom, as items are not loanable.

If you wish to search Cadbury Research Library's collections exclusively, this is how to do so.

• On the FindIt@Bham simple search bar, go to the first drop-down menu, and change it from Everywhere to On The Shelves. When you do this, the second drop-down menu automatically changes to All Libraries:

• Using the second drop-down menu, you can then select one of three options:

1. Cadbury Research Library: this will search across all our rare books and archives.
2. CRL (Archives): this will search just our archive items.
3. CRL (Rare Books): this will search just our rare books.

• Type your keywords into the search box and select the search icon.

To search specifically for archive materials held in the Cadbury Research Library, select On The Shelves from the first dropdown menu, and CRL (Archives) from the second menu. You can search using names and keywords.

In this example, the search is for archive materials relating to Harriet Martineau:

Archive materials are indicated by a turquoise icon in search results:

If you select the title, you will see a summary description of the archive. Selecting View Full Record will take you to Cadbury Research Library's external archive catalogue:

Selecting the Finding Number (in this example: HM/12) will enable you to view the full archive catalogue structure and see how the entry you originally selected fits with other archive materials from the same collection:

If you would like to view archive materials, make a note of the Finding Number and have it available when you visit the Cadbury Research Library.

To search specifically for old or rare books held in the Cadbury Research Library, select On The Shelves from the first dropdown menu, and CRL (Rare Books) from the second menu. You can search using:

• names;
• book titles;
• keywords.

In this example, the search is for rare books relating to John Baskerville:

If you are primarily interested in older books, use the filters in the Tweak my results column on the left-hand side to refine your results. For example, use the drop-down menu next to ‘Sort by’ to arrange the results from oldest to newest:

For rare books held at Cadbury Research Library, you will usually see a blue book icon, but there are occasions where a front cover or a title-page image might be displayed:

Most of our books will have the location Cadbury Research Library. Make a note of the book's classmark ready for your visit to the Cadbury Research Library to view it. 

Books with the location Cadbury Research Library Store are held off site. You need to submit a request to access books from Store, and it will take at least one working day for staff to retrieve them. Select the Check for current availability link in the result and you will see the full book details, including request options:

Select the Get It! button to navigate to an online request form.

Once the form is completed and submitted, your book will be ready within two working days for you to visit the Cadbury Research Library and consult it in our searchroom.

Please see Visiting the Cadbury Research Library, which includes identification requirements.