The British Library
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Pictured from the concourse
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| Country | United Kingdom |
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| Type | National library |
| Established | 1973 (1753) |
| Location |
Euston Road London, NW1 |
| Branches | 1 (Boston Spa, West Yorkshire) |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings and manuscripts |
| Size |
over 150,000,000 items |
| Legal deposit | Yes, as enshrined in the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 |
| Access and use | |
| Access requirements | Open to anyone with a need to use the collections and services |
| Other information | |
| Budget | £142 million |
| Director | Roly Keating (chief executive, since 12 September 2012) |
| Website | bl.uk |
Coordinates: 51°31′46″N 0°07′37″W / 51.52944°N 0.12694°W
over 150,000,000 items
13,950,000 books
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
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the second largest library in the world by number of items catalogued. Formally, officially classified and certified in the U.K. as a Grade I listed building "of exceptional interest" because of its special architectural and historic interest, the library is a major research library, holding well over 150 million items from many countries, and receives a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland (approximately 8,000 per day). Items are in many languages 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, along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 2000 BC.
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. It also has a programme for content acquisitions. The British Library adds some three million items every year occupying 9.6 kilometres (6.0 mi) of new shelf space.
The library is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is located on the north side of Euston Road in St Pancras, London (between Euston railway station and St Pancras railway station) and has a document storage centre and reading room near Boston Spa, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of Wetherby in West Yorkshire.
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