Religious Society of Friends in Britain (Quakers)

Last updated 9th December 2008 
Name of library Religious Society of Friends in Britain (Quakers) 
Address Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ 
Telephone  020 7663 1135
Fax  020 7663 1001
E-mail  library@quaker.org.uk
Website  http://www.quaker.org.uk
Alternative names  Society of Friends Library; Friends House Library
Contact & Job Title Beverley Kemp,  Head of Library and Archives
Purpose & main user community of the library Members of the Religious Society of Friends and bona fide researchers 
Terms of access On completion of reader registration form with proof of identification & address. Hourly fee for pursuing genealogical research. 50 year rule on archival material 
Opening hours Tuesday-Friday 10.00 – 17.00
The Library’s annual closed week will take place 18-22 May 2009 
Disabled access  The Library is one the Ground floor; most of the Reading Room is accessible., but there are books on high shelves.
Lending to other libraries & visitors Some books can be borrowed by registered readers 
Number of volumes 80,000 
Periodicals – Back Issues  400
Current Periodicals  150
Other materials Central records of Britain Yearly Meeting (formerly London Yearly Meeting) from 1650’s onwards; mss; 950 microfilms; approx. 20,000 photographs. 
Volumes added per year  400 printed items
Coverage Quakerism; C17 theology; peace; conscientious objection; anti-slavery; international relations 
Special Collections  Swarthmore mss – C17 letters and transcripts relating to early Quakerism (approx. 1,400 items); A.R. Barclay collection – 250 letters 1654-1688; Wilkinson, Lloyd and Barclay (Bury Hill)
Manuscripts  
Research resource  Major library on Quakerism in the UK + internationally, holding the chief sources of early Quaker history and the central archives of the Society of Friends in the UK.
Catalogue Type  computer
URL of catalogue  http://www.quaker.org.uk/catalogue
Other facilities  Photocopying of printed items published post 1900; microfilming; digital copying
Full Time Staff  4
Part Time Staff  1
Voluntary Staff  
Changes in next five years affecting the above  Retrospective cataloguing of printed collections is on-going
Anything else about the library