Using the Library
We're a bit different to your local library. You can't take books out, but you can use our Reading Rooms in London and Yorkshire for personal study and to access our collection. All you need is a free Reader Pass.
Our users include academic researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students and members of the public.
We're continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack. At the moment, our Reading Rooms in London and Yorkshire are open, but access to our collection and online resources is limited.
Consult the collection
We've released a searchable online version of our main catalogue, which contains the majority of our printed collections, but not everything is included.
Read our collection item FAQs below or watch our 'how to' video for more details.
What would you like to do?
Get your Reader Pass
A Reader Pass gives free access to our Reading Rooms and collection. Anyone can get a Reader Pass, you’ll just need to bring some identification to Reader Registration in London or Yorkshire.
Study in our Reading Rooms
All our Reading Rooms are open for personal study, with access to free Wi-Fi and limited access to collection items.
To use our Reading Rooms you will need your free Reader Pass.
Access our collection
Search our online catalogue to find the majority of books and special collections held at St Pancras and limited collection items at Boston Spa.
You will need to come onsite to order, and please note not everything is available. Please contact us to check availability.
Use our online resources
Our full website is currently unavailable, in the meantime there are some useful resources below. You can access these from home and you don't need a Reader Pass.
Speak to one of our team
Our Reference Services team are on hand to answer your research queries and advise on collection item availability. We're receiving a high volume of enquiries at the moment so please bear with us. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Frequently asked questions
Reader Registration
If you have a question about our registration process, please email reader@bl.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
How do I become a Reader?
Please visit Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa to be issued with your Reader Pass.
We’re now able to issue photographic passes again, and these will last for one year. The pass will allow you to use our Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves and order collection items to consult.
If you have previously been issued with a temporary paper pass, you will need to revisit Reader Registration to exchange it for a photographic pass.
Please note you need to be over 18 to get a Reader Pass, and you must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration.
My Reader Pass has expired, how can I renew it?
Please visit Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa to be issued with your Reader Pass. This pass will last for one year. Your pass will allow you to use our Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves and order collection items to consult.
Please bring your expired pass with you to Reader Registration, as your new pass will need to carry your expired Reader number to order any collection items.
If you have previously been issued with a temporary paper pass, you will need to revisit Reader Registration to exchange it for a photographic pass.
You must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration.
I have pre-registered as a Reader but haven't completed my registration, what do I do?
Please visit Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa to be issued with your Reader Pass. This pass will last for one year. Your pass will allow you to use our Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves and order collection items to consult.
Please bring your pre-registration confirmation email with you to Reader Registration, as your photographic pass will need to carry your Reader number to order any collection items.
If you have previously been issued with a temporary paper pass, you will need to revisit Reader Registration to exchange it for a photographic pass.
You must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration.
What ID do I need to bring to register as a Reader?
At the moment we can only issue one-year photographic passes.
Whether you are renewing, replacing or getting a new pass, please bring:
- a state-issued photo ID, printed with your photo, name and address (driving license or national ID card) or
- two separate documents, one showing your name and one showing your home address.
Types of documents we can accept include:
- State-issued documents e.g. passport
- Bills and financial documents
- NHS documentation e.g. NHS appointment letters and prescriptions
- DVLA documentation or correspondence
- Residency e.g. tenancy agreements.
Please note:
- We can accept original documents, photos, online versions or scanned copies of the documents above. Please ensure all text is legible
- Some driving licenses and national identity cards do not show your address. If yours doesn't, we can't accept it as your sole ID
- All documents need to be valid, or the paperwork issued within the last 12 months
- If necessary, it's up to you to provide official translations for foreign documents
- If you would like to bring a guest aged over 18 into our Reading Rooms, they will also need a Reader Pass. If you require a carer or have an adult dependent, they will also need a Reader Pass.
- Unfortunately, we can't issue a Reader Pass without seeing the ID listed above. Without a Reader Pass, you won't be able to use our Reading Rooms.
Can I pre-register for my Reader Pass before I visit the Library?
At the moment you can only get a Reader Pass by visiting the Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa, and you can’t pre-register online.
With this Reader Pass you will be able to use the Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves, and order collection items to consult.
You must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration.
My temporary paper pass is still valid, what should I do?
You can continue using your temporary paper pass until it expires.
If you have a temporary white paper pass but you need to order collection items, you can revisit Reader Registration to exchange it for a photographic pass before its expiry date.
If you have a temporary blue paper pass you can continue to use it until it expires, and then exchange it for a photographic pass.
With a photographic pass you will be able to use the Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves, and order collection items to consult.
You must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration, even when replacing your temporary pass. You may want to consider visiting the Reader Registration in the afternoons, when it is likely to be quieter.
Reading Rooms and our collection
All our Reading Rooms are open for personal study, and you can now search an online version of our main catalogue. Please read our FAQs for more information about how to search for and order collection items at the moment.
Are the Reading Rooms open?
All of our Reading Rooms are open during their normal opening hours, for personal study, and for accessing books and other items from our collection, subject to availability and certain restrictions. See FAQs below for more details. Digital and audio-visual collections are not currently available.
To use our Reading Rooms you will need your free Reader Pass.
When will more services be restored?
The cyber-attack caused substantial damage that is complex and challenging to repair, and includes the installation of a completely new computing infrastructure for the entire Library.
As we approach the new academic year our CEO, Sir Roly Keating, has issued a new blog about the rebuild of our systems and services.
Further improvements and restoration of services you can expect in the coming months:
- Access to more collection items held in Boston Spa – August: Due to technical work taking longer than expected, material stored in our Additional Storage Building in Boston Spa should now be available by the end of August, rather than July. Access to materials held in the National Newspaper Building is more complex and will take longer. In the meantime, you can find a wide range of newspaper titles available in microform in the Newsroom at St Pancras.
- Digital collections acquired through Non-Print Legal Deposit (NPLD) – September: A solution has now been developed to enable the restoration of access to Non-Print Legal Deposit content to our partner libraries in the Legal Deposit network: the National Library of Wales, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library and the library of Trinity College Dublin. The technical solution will be in place by early September, after which, each library in the network will restore access arrangements in their own reading rooms, once they have the capacity to do so.
- Learning websites and digitised manuscripts – September: We hope to begin to restore some of our unique collection of digitised manuscripts, and our popular Learning resources, including Discovering Literature, in September
- Remote ordering – September: An interim remote collection ordering method will be in place by the start of the new academic year in September, and we’ll share more about this process once it’s in place.
How can I find out what's currently available?
There are a few ways to explore what's in our collection and find out what's currently available:
- You can now use a searchable online version of our main catalogue. This catalogue contains records of the majority of our printed collection and some freely available online resources
- You can consult printed catalogues in the Reading Rooms
- You can work with our Reading Room staff on-site to search for items in our special collections, such as archives and manuscripts
- You can search Jisc Library Hub Discover, WorldCat, The National Archives and The Archives Hub for records of items held in our collection, and see if they are held elsewhere.
The following table can help you find the collection types you require:
| Content type | Where to search |
|---|---|
| Archives | Several are searchable though printed catalogues and handlists, please contact us or speak to teams in the Reading Rooms |
| Ebooks | The majority are included in the online catalogue, but ebooks collected under legal deposit are currently unavailable. |
| Electoral registers and parliamentary papers | Several are searchable though printed catalogues and handlists, please contact us or speak to teams in the Reading Rooms |
| Eresources | Currently unavailable |
| Digitised manuscripts and archives | Some available through the Endangered Archives Programme Some available through the Medieval manuscripts blog The digitised manuscripts site is currently unavailable |
| Images from collection items | Some available from the British Library Flickr account |
| Manuscripts | Several are searchable though printed catalogues and handlists, please contact us or speak to teams in the Reading Rooms |
| Microfilms and microfiche | Several are searchable though printed catalogues and handlists, please contact us or speak to teams in the Reading Rooms |
| Newspapers | Many are available to search on the British Newspaper Archive, including a limited amount of 'free to view' |
| Online journal articles and serials | Currently unavailable |
| Printed books | The majority are included in the online catalogue |
| Printed journals and serials | The majority are included in the online catalogue |
| Rare books | The majority are included in the online catalogue Also included in printed catalogues in the Reading Rooms |
| Printed maps | The majority are included in the online catalogue |
| Printed music scores | The majority are included in the online catalogue |
| Sound archive content | Currently unavailable |
| UK Web Archive | Currently unavailable |
| Video and moving image content | Currently unavailable |
| Visual arts content | Please contact our Visual Arts team at apac-prints@bl.uk |
We're working hard to expand access to all of our collection as soon as we can, and will update our website and social media channels with more information.
Online ordering is not currently possible, so you will need to come to the Reading Rooms to order your collection items. Please contact our Reference Services Team before you visit to check what you need will be available, by contacting us.
What's in the online catalogue?
The online catalogue is a searchable version of our main catalogue of books and other printed material. It contains records relating to the following collection item categories:
Catalogue data included:
| Catalogue data not included:
|
How do I order collection items in your St Pancras Reading Rooms?
To order an item you'll need to place a manual order in one of our Reading Rooms by completing a paper order form. Our staff can help you with this.
To identify the items you need, you can use our online catalogue to search for the item you require. If a record is marked ‘Not available’, this means the item is unavailable at the moment. If a record is marked ‘Should be available’, you will be able to see a shelfmark reference. You can take note of the shelfmark, because you will need it to place a manual order in the Reading Rooms by completing a paper order form.
We can’t guarantee that items marked ‘Should be available’ are available to order; they may be in use by another Reader or restricted for other reasons. To check the availability before you visit, contact our Reference Services team by contacting us.
In the Reading Rooms you can also consult our printed catalogues, which contain items not currently included in the online catalogue.
To see if items are held elsewhere, you can search Jisc Library Hub Discover, WorldCat, The National Archives and The Archives Hub.
Orders for same-day delivery close at 16.00.
How can I find out if a collection item is available before I visit?
Before you visit, you can use our online catalogue to search for the items you require. If a record is marked ‘Not available’, this means the item is unavailable at the moment. If a record is marked ‘Should be available’, you will be able to see a shelfmark reference. Please take note of the shelfmark as you will need it to place a manual order in the Reading Rooms by completing a paper order form.
We can’t guarantee that items marked ‘Should be available’ are available to order; they may be in use by another Reader or restricted for other reasons. To check the availability before you visit, contact our Reference Services team by contacting us.
How quickly will my orders be delivered to the Reading Room?
We will endeavour to deliver your order within 70 minutes. However, please bear in mind that in some cases it may take longer if our staff have to do extra checks to ensure that the items you ordered are available. Orders for same-day delivery close at 16.00.
Can I order collection items to your Boston Spa Reading Room?
We’ve now restarted the transfer of collection items between our two sites, which has expanded the range of collection materials available for you to order. This means Readers in Boston Spa can access material stored in St Pancras, and vice versa. This has restored access to material that can be retrieved manually from our stores in Boston Spa, but as we are currently unable to access our automated stores, not everything is available.
If your item is being transferred from another site please allow two working days for delivery. You still need to visit in person and complete paper forms to order collection items at the moment.
We recommend contacting our Boston Spa Reading Room team before you visit to check what you need will be available, by emailing customer@bl.uk.
We plan to restore access to more collection items stored in Boston Spa, including those held in our automated stores, over the coming months.
Can I access special collections such as archives and manuscripts?
The majority of special collections held at St Pancras are now available, including restricted material. Our specialist archive and manuscripts catalogue is not online at the moment, please contact us using LibAnswers or LibChat (via the green Ask Us tab on the right of the catalogue) so we can help you find what you need and advise on its availability.
Where can I consult restricted material?
Restricted material can only be consulted in the following Reading Rooms, depending on the collection type:
Asian & African: India Office Records and Private Papers, Asian and African Collections (manuscripts and printed items) and the Visual Arts collection (by appointment in the Print Room)
Manuscripts: Restricted western manuscripts
Rare Books & Music: Restricted printed books and restricted music collections
Maps: Restricted maps collections
To access restricted material you must have a Reader Pass issued after 21 March 2024. If your pass was issued before this date, please visit Reader Registration to replace it.
How do I arrange to view restricted material?
You will need to submit a request either in person in one of the special collections Reading Rooms (Asian & African, Manuscripts, Rare Books & Music, and Maps), or via LibAnswers or LibChat (via the green Ask Us tab on the right of the catalogue).
If you wish to consult Select manuscripts in the Manuscripts Reading Room, you will need to provide a “Letter of introduction”. Please ask via LibAnswers or LibChat if you need more information about this.
Approval to consult restricted material may take up to 3 working days (excluding Saturdays) and making an item available might take longer. We therefore recommend you plan your visit to the Reading Rooms carefully.
Please note self-service photography is not permitted for restricted items.
Once your request to access special collections is approved, we will let you know how to order and view your item
Can I access your sound and vision collection?
Our audio-visual collections are currently unavailable.
How up to date is the online catalogue?
The catalogue is a snapshot as of April 2023, and we will not be adding any new records to it for the time being. Please see the table above for details of the categories of collection data it includes.
Is this version of the online catalogue just an interim solution?
Yes - we will ultimately bring back a fully integrated catalogue with online ordering and other features. However, this will take some time to implement so in the meantime we will work iteratively to improve the service we can offer to Readers using this version of the main catalogue as a basis.
How many items can I order?
You can order up to six collection items per day. Please note that as usual it is possible for only four manuscripts to be in process at any one time.
Can I increase my daily order limit?
Please speak to a member of our team in the Reading Rooms for help with this.
Can I order the collection items I require in advance of coming to the Reading Rooms?
We hope to implement a system for this soon but unfortunately it's not possible at the moment.
Can I reserve my items to view again?
Yes, you can reserve your items for up to three working days. Please speak to a member of our team in the Reading Room for help with this.
Can I extend the reservation period?
That may be possible, please speak to a member of our team in the Reading Room for help with this.
Can I consult material on the shelves in the Reading Room?
Yes, you can access collection items held on the open shelves in the Reading Rooms.
Can I access your digital collection?
Most of our digital collection and electronic resources are currently unavailable, but some freely available online resources are included in our online catalogue.
You can also access the resources below from home without a Reader Pass:
- search HathiTrust or Archive.org for older and out-of-copyright digitised material
- use Google Books to search a huge range of digitised content from our collection
- access 1 million images of items from our collection on Flickr
- search millions of newspaper articles via the British Newspaper Archives
- explore Artstor's digital library.
We plan to restore access to a range of other digital and digitised content over the next few months.
Can I access online services in the Reading Rooms?
The following services in the Reading Rooms are currently unavailable:
- digital content including electronic resources
- online and advance ordering
- Reading Room PCs.
Why do I have to surrender my Reader Pass in the specialist Reading Rooms when collection items are issued to me?
To help us maintain collection security, we need to monitor the collection items consulted in the specialist Reading Rooms.
What time do I need to return the special collection items I'm consulting?
We would appreciate if you can return these items to the Issue Desk 45 minutes before closing time.
Will I be able to take photographs from special collection items?
Please ask our staff in the Reading Rooms who will be able to assist you.
Can I access the Print Room?
Yes, prints, drawings, photographs and related visual material held in the Visual Art collection can be consulted in the Print Room located in the Asian and African Reading Room. The Print Room is open by appointment only on Monday and Friday between 10.30 and 12.30. Please contact the Visual Arts team via email (apac-prints@bl.uk) to check the availability of required items and to book an appointment. Please note that advanced booking is required.
Can I access UK doctoral theses?
Our online catalogue now provides access to digital doctoral theses held in UK institutional repositories. To access these documents, search for a thesis and then click on a title of interest to view the full details for that work. The link can be found under the section labelled "View Online - External Resource Available" (in green) just above the "I want this" section (in red) at the bottom of the page.
Are the Eccles Centre Fellowships going ahead in 2024?
The Eccles Institute has unfortunately decided to suspend the Visiting Fellowship programme for 2024-25. We know that this will be disappointing, and this decision has not been taken lightly. We anticipate that there will be some opportunities for Eccles Institute support after key Library services have resumed.
How can I access high-res images of items from your collection?
At the moment, most of our digital collection and electronic resources are unavailable, but you can use alternate online resources including our Flickr and Images Online sites. You can also find digitised resources on a number of our blogs, and on the IDP website.
We can supply hi res images for all images that are available on Images Online, and are working on adding some additional images without captions/metadata that have been kindly given by previous users.
If you have any questions about the image you'd like to use please email licensing@bl.uk and we'll come back to you as soon as we can.
If you have previously been supplied images by the Library please get in touch as we can redistribute them to users who may need them.
British Library On Demand
We are now offering an interim manual interlibrary loan and scan from print service to business account holders. We'll be contacting account holders with more details about this service. British Library On Demand from digital collections and some of our print collections remains unavailable. We're working on restoring the whole service as soon as we can.
In the meantime:
- all requests submitted before Saturday 28 October and in our system will be cancelled, with the option for you to reapply once our service is up and running should items still be required
- renewal charges will not apply, and you can continue to return your items to us when no longer required.
I have an outstanding request, when will this be fulfilled?
All requests in our system will be cancelled, with the option for you to reapply once our service is up and running, should items still be required.
Should I still send my items back?
Yes, you can continue to return your items to us when no longer required.
Can I renew my items?
Renewal charges will not apply, so you can keep hold of your items if you need them for longer and send them back to us when no longer required.
Can I request an interlibrary loan?
We are now offering an interim, manual interlibrary loan and scan from print service to business account holders. We’ll be contacting account holders with more details about this service.
Access digitised content
Most of our digital collection and electronic resources are currently unavailable, but some freely available online resources are included in our online catalogue. See our collection item FAQs above for more information about what's included.
Out-of-copyright material
Search HathiTrust or Archive.org for older and out-of-copyright digitised material.
Google Books
Use this filtered search to access over 700,000 digitised books from our collection on Google Books.
Newspapers
Search millions of newspaper articles via the British Newspaper Archives.
Theatrical playbills
The British Library Playbills collection gives access to 80,000 theatre posters. It includes high resolution images with searchable text of English, Scottish, and Irish playbills made between 1600 and 1902 (mostly 19th century).
Other available resources
Research Repository
Search our open access Research Repository for outputs from our staff, open access data sets, 3D models of collection items and content from other heritage organisations.
English Short Title Catalogue
Access a temporary search interface for the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), to search over 480,000 pre-1801 records, many with links to Early English Books Online (EEBO). Created by Nikolai Vogler for the collaborative research project Print & Probability.
Open University
Freely available eresources are listed by The Open University.
Journal articles
Anyone can sign up for a free Jstor account. Creating an account gives access to 100 free articles per month from their range of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Artstor digital library
Explore Artstor's digital library of images, videos, documents, and audio files.
Endangered Archive Programme
Look at digitised collections items from around the world through our Endangered Archive Programme (EAP).
British National Bibliography (BNB)
The British National Bibliography (BNB) records the publishing activity of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland since 1950. The BNB is available on the Share Family beta portal. To request a CIP record, please contact BDS. To request a weekly PDF of new additions to the BNB, please contact metadata@bl.uk.
Our website content
Our full website is unavailable, but it is possible to find some of our content using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to search for archived copies of our website.
MARC and ISIL assignment service
Our MARC organization code and ISIL assignment service is still available for libraries and related organizations, such as archives and museums. If you are such an organization and require a MARC organization code or an ISIL, please contact uk-isilmarc@bl.uk and we can assign those identifiers for you.
ISSN UK Centre applications and confirmation
To submit an application for ISSN assignment please request an application form from issn-uk@bl.uk. For conversion of ISSN records from provisional to confirmed status, please send copies of the first issue of your publication to the ISSN UK Centre, digital copies to issn-uk@bl.uk and print to ISSN UK Centre, British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ.
Our blogs
Other services
Find more information about other services at the Library, including Public Lending Right (PLR), legal deposit and the International Library Leaders programme.