Welcome to the Humanities Reading Rooms Reference Service

The Humanities Reading Rooms (Humanities - Floors 1 and 2) provide access to the British Library's collection of modern (post-1850) printed humanities material. Humanities - floor 2 also provides access to the printed collections of the Sound Archive and the Librarianship and Information Sciences Service.

The Humanities Reference Service team offers an on-site enquiry service in the Reading Rooms or you can contact us by telephone, letter, fax or email.

Electronic resources

The British Library subscribes to a range of humanities resources. These are only available within the Library's Reading Rooms. Access from outside the Library is not possible owing to licensing restrictions.

Research resources

Links to freely available British Library and external humanities resources:

• Humanities resources topics guide
  The topics guide provides a good starting point for humanities researchers wanting to find relevant material within the British Library website and beyond. The topics listed include subject areas (e.g. Art, English Literature, History) and also types of material such as dictionaries, dissertations, national bibliographies and periodicals.
• Virtual reference library
• Libraries and library catalogues
• Audio research (Sound Archive)
• Subject gateways and search engines
• Electronic text sites

Contact details

The British Library
Humanities Collections
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom