Facts and figures

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries.

We receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland
The collection includes 150 million items, in most known languages
3 million new items are incorporated every year
We house manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents
The Sound Archive keeps sound recordings from 19th-century cylinders to the latest CD, DVD and minidisc recordings
We house 8 million stamps and other philatelic items
These require over 625 km of shelves, and grow 12km every year
If you see 5 items each day, it would take you 80,000 years to see the whole of the collection
The earliest dated printed book, the Diamond Sutra, can be seen in our exhibition galleries alongside many other national treasures
We have on-site space for over 1,200 readers
Over 16,000 people use the collections each day
Online catalogues, information and exhibitions can be found on this website
We operate the world's largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world

In depth

The British Library serves business and industry, researchers, academics and students, in the UK and world-wide
Each year:
- Six million searches are generated by the British Library online catalogue
- Nearly 400,000 visit our Reading Rooms
Over 100 million items have been supplied to readers all over the world

Treasures include:

Holdings include:

Material from 300 BC to today's newspapers
310,000 manuscript volumes, from Jane Austen to James Joyce, Handel to the Beatles
49.5 million patents
Over 4 million maps
Over 260,000 journal titles

The largest public building constructed in the UK in the 20th century
The basements extend to a depth of 24.5 metres
A total floor area of over 112,000 sq metres spread over 14 floors - 9 above ground, 5 below
10 million bricks and 180,000 tonnes of concrete were needed to complete the building