How to use the British Library
We're a bit different to your local library. We house the national collection, with many unique items. You can't take books home, 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.
You can also use our public spaces in London for personal study, but you can only consult collection items in our Reading Rooms. Some rooms have a special focus, where you consult a particular type of material, others are more general reading areas. All of them have comfy seats, free Wi-Fi, and staff you can ask for advice.
If you’ve used us before, things might be different since the last time you visited. A major cyber-attack severely disrupted our systems and services, and we know it has particularly impacted researchers. Recovery is underway, and while not everything is back yet, we’re working hard to make the Library more resilient as we restore the services you need. We’ll keep you updated as we progress.
Search our catalogue
Explore an interim version of our main catalogue, which contains the majority of our printed collections, but not everything is included.
What’s currently available?
This page sets out what’s currently available and how you can use the Library during this recovery period. Thank you for your patience and continued support.
Visit the British Library
Get your Reader Pass
Your Reader Pass is a library card that gives you free access to our collections and Reading Rooms in London and Yorkshire.
Use our study spaces
We have 11 Reading Rooms in London and one in Yorkshire, where you can request and see our collection items, or just come to study.
Order collection items
Request items from our catalogue of over 170 million items and they'll be waiting for you in our Reading Rooms.
More information and resources
Research guides
Our research and collection guides can help you use our catalogue, request collection items to consult, and explore freely available electronic resources.
Speak to one of our team
Get in touch with our friendly team. We can help you find what you need.
Blogs
Explore our blogs from curators and teams across the Library.
Access digitised content
Freely available eresources, selected by our experts and listed by title and subject.
More services
Information about our other services, including Public Lending Right (PLR), Legal Deposit, British Library On Demand, digitisation and metadata services.
Other available resources
Digitised manuscripts
Access 1,000 of our digitised manuscripts, including the Sherborne Missal and Octateuch, Four Gospels and Synodicon.
Endangered Archive Programme
Look at digitised collections items from around the world through our Endangered Archive Programme (EAP).
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.
Google Books
Use this filtered search to access over 700,000 digitised books from our collection on Google Books.
Qatar Digital Library
The Qatar Digital Library has more than 2 million digitised pages covering the history and culture of the Gulf and wider region, including Arabic scientific manuscripts from the British Library’s collections.
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.
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).
International Dunhuang Programme (IDP)
Explore manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Eastern Silk Roads, conserved and digitised as part of the International Dunhuang Programme. The website includes about 40,000 digitised items from the British Library collection, including manuscripts and historical photographs.
Find a local library near you
LibraryOn is a single online home for libraries and library users across the country – offering an easy way to find, understand and use your local library’s services.