The Philip Richardson Library
The Philip Richardson Library houses one of the largest specialist dance collections in the UK. We welcome visitors from around the world as well as Royal Academy of Dance members, students and staff.
Library & Archive services have now resumed but access to the collections onsite is currently restricted to RAD Staff, Dance Studies and Faculty of Education students. We hope to be able to offer appointments for other visitors later in the year but in the meantime, our remote enquiry service is operating as usual and copies of documents may be provided through photography/scanning where appropriate. See further below for more information on our services.
The open access collections include books, journals, CDs, DVDs, conference proceedings, resource packs, exhibition and auction catalogues and Benesh Movement Notation Scores. The dance collection is supplemented by resources in the related fields of pedagogy, music, anatomy and physiology.
Materials in the archives and special collections include rare books, theatre programmes, photographs, costume designs, pictures and artefacts, as well as audio-visual materials and paper-based documents and correspondence.