Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings and manuscripts
Size
170–200 million+[1][2][3][4] items
13,950,000 books[5]
824,101 serial titles
351,116 manuscripts (single and volumes)
8,266,276 philatelic items
4,347,505 cartographic items
1,607,885 music scores
6,000,000 sound recordings
Legal deposit
Yes, provided in law by:
Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 (United Kingdom)
Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 (Republic of Ireland)
Access and use
Access requirements
Open to anyone with a need to use the collections and services
Other information
Budget
£142 million[5]
Director
Sir Roly Keating (chief executive, since 12 September 2012)
Website
bl.uk
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name
The British Library, piazza, boundary wall and railings to Ossulston Street, Euston Road and Midland Road
Designated
31 July 2015 (2015-07-31)
Reference no.
1426345[6]
British Library highlights film, 2014.
The British Library is a research library in London that is the national library of the United Kingdom.[7] It is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million[1][2][3][4] items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The British Library is a major research library, with items in many languages[8] and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's collections include around 14 million books,[9] along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and items dating as far back as 2000 BC. The library maintains a programme for content acquisition and adds some three million items each year occupying 9.6 kilometres (6 mi) of new shelf space.[10]
Prior to 1973, the Library was part of the British Museum, also in the Borough of Camden. The Library's modern purpose-built building stands next to St Pancras station on Euston Road in Somers Town, on the site of a former goods yard.[11] There is an additional storage building and reading room in the branch library near Boston Spa in Yorkshire. The St Pancras building was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 25 June 1998, and is classified as a Grade I listed building "of exceptional interest" for its architecture and history.[12]
^ abWight, Colin. "Facts and figures". bl.uk. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
^ ab"BL Accounts 2019" (PDF). bl.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
^ ab"BL Exhibition Notes". bl.uk. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
^ ab"How Big is the UK Web Archive?". bl.uk. Archived from the original on 31 August 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
^ abLibrary, British (26 July 2010). British Library thirty-seventh annual report and accounts 2009/10. Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-10-296664-0.
^Historic England. "The British Library, piazza, boundary wall and railings to Ossulston Street, Euston Road and Midland Road (1426345)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
^"Using the British Library" Archived 23 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. British Library. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
^"Using the British Library". British Library. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
^"The British Library; Explore the world's knowledge". British Library. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
^The British Library Annual Report and Accounts 2010/11, p. 31 Archived 24 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine
^Symonds, Matthew (3 June 2011). "Shadow of St Pancras: Excavating the Age of Steam". Current Archaeology (256): 12–19. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
^Cite error: The named reference listed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
The BritishLibrary is a research library in London that is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the largest libraries in the world...
A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions...
BritishLibrary. They demanded a ransom of 20 bitcoin, at the time around £596,000, to restore services and return the stolen data. When the British Library...
the BritishLibrary Act 1972 detached the library department from the British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated BritishLibrary in the...
country. Thus, national libraries are those libraries whose community is the nation at large. Examples include the BritishLibrary in London, and the Bibliothèque...
second-largest library in Britain after the BritishLibrary. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works...
library to the nation as its first national library. This transfer established the formation of the BritishLibrary. The first true national library was...
collections" of the British Museum in 1753. It is now one of the major collections of the Department of Manuscripts of the BritishLibrary. Cotton was of a...
identifies with Cruttenden's "Refined RP". An article on the website of the BritishLibrary refers to Conservative, Mainstream and Contemporary RP. Traditionally...
given may not be directly comparable. List of largest libraries in the United States "BritishLibrary at Boston Spa". bl.uk. Archived from the original on...
Francis Kester Keating (born 5 August 1961) is Chief Executive of the BritishLibrary. He took up his post in September 2012. Keating was born on 5 August...
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Oxyrhynchus 655 London, BritishLibrary Or 4926 (1) at LDAB Walter Ewing Crum, Catalogue of the Coptic manuscripts in the British Museum. British Museum (1905)...
world where the British Empire has remained a major superpower. The Empire's continued existence is guaranteed by the BritishLibrary (大英図書館, Daiei-toshokan)...
The BritishLibrary Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world...
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is the set of varieties of the English language native to the island of Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer...
which new material is no longer added) of the BritishLibrary in London, formerly the library of the British Museum. The collection comprises 7,660 manuscripts...
BritishLibrary Sounds (previously named Archival Sound Recordings) is a BritishLibrary service providing free online access to a diverse range of spoken...
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