Welcome to the Sparrows' Nest Library and Archive

Based in Nottingham (UK), we look after tens of thousands of books, journals, pamphlets, zines, leaflets, posters and other items documenting the anarchist movement in the UK and beyond, as well as local radical history. Browse our catalogue, access digitised records in our free Digital Library and get in touch to arrange a visit.
Advanced search (Alternatively, you can access parts of our Digital Library at the Internet Archive.)
Digital Library only

It is possible to borrow books from the Sparrows’ Nest. Whether or not that is possible will be decided on a case by case basis. The decision is usually based on how difficult it would be to replace an item should you decide to make a run for it.

Therefore, most books are available for a loan period of up to four weeks. We will take your name and contact details. You can renew your loaned items by email for another four weeks if you need to do so.

You are responsible to return materials. If you do not return items and ignore our reminders, you are stopping others from accessing the materials and force us to waste some of our very limited funds to replace the stuff.

Given that the vast majority of our journals, pamphlets, zines, etc. are no longer in print and thus rare or even unique, you cannot borrow these items. We are however happy to digitise and add them to the Digital Library for you to enjoy/work with from home.

EU e-Privacy Directive