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 unique collection of posters, leaflets, flyers, newspaper cuttings, campaign materials and more than 160 journals from black community and grassroots groups in the anti-racist struggle. Called the Black History Collection, and spanning the 1950s to the 1980s, it covers topics such as black workers' struggles for representation at work and in their unions, anti-deportation campaigns, policing and racial violence, the Black Power movement, the education, health and social welfare of black children, the 1958 Notting Hill riots, anti-fascism and uprisings.
The catalogue to the Black History Collection is available online. Items from the collection can be viewed at the IRR by prior appointment. To arrange a time to visit, please contact the Institute.
