Library and information
The Institute of Race Relations' main library collection (known as the Sivanandan Collection) is held at the University of Warwick as part of its Ethnicity and Migration Collection. The Sivanandan Collection, containing thousands of books, pamphlets and journals, was developed from the early 1960s under the aegis of Dr. A. Sivanandan. In broad terms, the regions covered are Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, South and South East Asia, Africa, with particularly substantial collections on Britain, the United States, Western Europe and Southern Africa. There is a section on women's issues and a large general section covering issues such as imperialism, migration, Third World development, race theories and slavery.
Search the Sivanandan Collection library catalogue.
Black History Collection
The IRR continues to hold a separate collection of journals, pamphlets and ephemera relating to the IRR's history, Black settlement and political movements from the 1940s-1980s. This collection, which is being developed by the IRR, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, includes over 100 Black journals and a large number of documents from civil rights and Black Power organisations. At present, this material is in the process of being catalogued and preserved and is therefore not available to the public.
If you are interested in volunteering to help with the preservation of the Black History Collection, please contact Rosie Wild. Volunteers will be given basic training in document handling and paper conservation.