The IHR library plans to stay open for those who need to access the collections. Desks need to be booked ahead. Our priority remains the health and safety of our readers and staff and we’ll have distancing, cleaning and book quarantining procedures in place as before. We encourage readers to access services remotely if possible during the lockdown. We are offering a scanning and enquiry service. Arrangements may need to change at short notice so you are advised to check before travelling. Further information available here.
 
Our online guides to Open and Free Access Materials for Research (launched March 2020) and Teaching British Histories of Race, Migration and Empire (August 2020) are still available and being updated. We also have a new guide to the historiography collections in the library.

In November 2020 we announced the first 10 seminars series for a new initiative: the IHR online Partnership Seminars.

Designed as a space for timely interventions in current and emerging research areas, Partnership Seminars will open up inter-disciplinary and cross-sector dialogues, bring together different approaches and expertise on selected themes, and forge new collaborations and networks across the UK and beyond.

Further information on each of the series is now available via a Partnerships Seminar page on the IHR website. Seminar series including Anthropocene Histories, The Archives of Global History in a Time of International Immobility, Coastal Connections and The Shock of the Record are already underway and open for booking.

On 3 December we launched the IHR’s 2020 Annual Fund campaign. This year’s fund is slightly different to the last. As we are all still working from home, we’re unable to send or receive post. The 2020 Fund therefore takes place online, with communications sent by email (unfortunately, this situation also means we are unable to process cheques).
 
Thank you so much to all our generous donors who have already made a gift to IHR’s Annual Fund, which supports a variety of activity from across the IHR. To date we have raised more than £8,800.  If you would like to make a donation and help us reach £10,000, you can do so here. Thank you.

British History Online (BHO) is a digital collection of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a special focus on the period 1300 to 1800.

 As we enter a new lockdown period (January 2021), we’ve decided to make all transcribed content on BHO freely available to individual users. This move repeats a similar freeing up of 200 volumes of BHO Premium Content in 2020. This material will remain available until 30 April 2021.

We hope this freeing up helps with research and teaching at this time. This blog post (first published for the 2020 offer and now updated) describes what’s included in this latest move.

Keeping in touch is now more important than ever.

News and updates are available via the IHR’s Twitter account. Our blog, ‘On History’, also includes regular commentaries on Institute activities and essays from guest historians. You can also contact us via social media or via the website.