– New research guide for the Library’s Memory and Commemoration collections –
Mike Weston (own work via Wikimedia Commons)
With the emergence within historical research of the study of memory and commemoration practices, the Institute of Historical Research Library has seen a substantial growth over recent years in its collections documenting the history of memory. In addition, with significant centenaries of historical events and an exponential rise in public commemoration and heritage events, the library has also endeavoured to collect works on memorialisation practices, heritage studies and the influence history has in societies as a whole. The Library team have therefore recently compiled a guide to the library’s memory and commemoration collections.
The guide provides an overview of the Library’s holdings, gives details of relevant classmark locations and highlights works concerning the commemoration of the First World War, Spanish Civil War and the Holocaust.
The Library’s collections contain significant holdings concerning the theoretical approaches of conducting memory, heritage and commemoration research. In addition, the Library also holds a swathe of works examining public commemoration and remembrance practices of specific historical events and periods. Examples from both of these areas are detailed within the collection guide, alongside relevant holdings within the Library’s electronic resources, journals, and periodicals.
The guide brings together works dispersed across the Library’s collections with relevant resources for memory and commemoration research, most notably from within the General collections. Alongside this, the guide also provides information of other relevant libraries and institutions with extensive resources on the study of memory.